KARACHI: A leader of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) was shot dead and his son wounded in a suspected targeted attack in Steel Town.

Area SHO Alan Khan Abbasi told Dawn that Abdul Sattar Bugti, 55, and his son Azmat, 15, were travelling in a car from Gulshan-i-Maymar to their home in Salar Goth of Steel Town late on Friday night. The suspects, who were also in a car, had probably been chasing them and opened fire near their residence, the officer said, adding that as a result, Sattar Bugti died on the spot while his teenage son was wounded.

The body and wounded were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

The SHO said that during the initial probe, it had transpired that the deceased was the president of the JWP in Sindh.

However, he said the murder was not related to any political issue but apparently to a `bloody clash between close relatives of slain Nawab Akbar Bugti.

The officer said that the incident seemed to be a `continuation` of a feud between members of the Bugti family that started in the Defence Housing Authority in the recent past. He said the police were waiting for the heirs to lodge an FIR to formally initiate legal proceedingsin the case.

Meanwhile, a relative of slain Nawab Akbar Bugti told Dawn on the condition of anonymity that Sattar Bugti`s killing was not related to the Bugti family`s clash.

He claimed that he was allegedly involved in the murder of a man in Sanghar recently and had been expressing fears about his life.