Karachi: Unknown gunmen killed a senior lawyer in Pakistan on Thursday, prompting other lawyers to call for a boycott of court proceedings on Friday and a sit-in on the main roads of Karachi.

At least 12 people have been gunned down in renewed violence in the last 24 hours, as sectarian groups remained vulnerable targets.

On Thursday morning, in Gulshane Iqbal town, four armed assailants opened fire on the car of Syed Waqar Shah, a senior lawyer and vice president of Pakistan Muslim League’s Lawyers Forum. The incident led to tension in the area and shopkeepers pulled their shutters down.

Karachi Bar Association’s secretary-general Khalid Mumtaz, while condemning the killing of Shah, announced a meeting of the general body of the association on Friday to decide what actions to take as lawyers continued to be targeted.

The lower courts were closed on Wednesday as well, to mark the sixth anniversary of the incident on April 9, 2009, when lawyers’ offices were set ablaze by unknown attackers.

A lawyer and his client were burnt to death in the arson, while another lawyer was gunned down on the same day.

Mumtaz also announced a boycott of the courts and called the lawyers to join in the sit-in.

From Wednesday night until Thursday, at least 12 people were shot dead in the city, exposing the inadequacy of government security measures.

In Block 15 of Gulistane Jauhar, unknown gunmen opened fire outside a roadside hotel in which three students of a seminary were killed and two others were injured.

Protesters fired gunshots in the air and burnt tyres on the road to condemn the killings. Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat claimed that the men who were shot were its sympathisers.

Earlier, in Block 16 of the Gulistane Jauhar, unknown attackers shot a surgeon. The victim, Dr Hyder Raza was affiliated with a private hospital. It was the second killing of a doctor in past two days.

Police on Thursday announced a half-million rupee (Dh18,878) reward for those who would help police in arresting the culprits behind the killings of the lawyer, the doctor and the three students of the seminary.

A special investigation team was also formed comprising deputy inspector general of CID police to nab the killers behind those killings.