'Dhurandhar' Zubair Baloch's brother critical after being shot by motorcycle-borne gunmen in Karachi's Lyari

Zubair Baloch, brother of jailed Pakistani gang leader Uzair Baloch, whose criminal career inspired the film "Dhurandhar", was critically injured on Thursday evening after unidentified gunmen opened fire on him outside his home in Karachi's Lyari area, according to Pakistani media reports.

The 40-year-old was sitting outside his residence on Singu Lane when two men on a motorcycle, their faces covered, fired several rounds and hit him in the chest and stomach before speeding away. Doctors rushed him into emergency surgery at Civil Hospital Karachi. Two people caught in the crossfire were also hurt, and one of them remains in serious condition.

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The attack has pulled Lyari's old gang rivalries back into the spotlight, just as the Baloch family's history of violence finds a new audience on screen.

Was it a personal score, or a gang war reawakening?

Investigators say the getaway was almost interrupted. A shopkeeper near the scene fired back at the attackers, and CCTV footage that later circulated on Telegram showed the street breaking into panic as the gunmen made their escape.

Police have not named any suspects. They say they are looking at two possibilities, a personal dispute, or the resurfacing of the gang conflict that once defined the neighbourhood.

A family with a long police file

Zubair walked out of jail last year after being arrested in several criminal cases back in 2012. His brother Uzair is still behind bars, serving a 12-year sentence a military court handed him for espionage in April 2020, tied to a 2012 armed attack on police at the Kalakot station.

Lyari's violent history

Long before this shooting, Lyari was known across Karachi as the city's most dangerous gang territory. What began as fights over drug routes and extortion money grew into something bigger, with rival gangs pulling political parties into their turf wars for protection from the police.

Two names dominated that era: Rehman Dakait and his rival Arshad Pappu, who used backing from groups like the Peoples' Aman Committee to keep their operations running largely unchecked. After police killed Rehman Dakait in an encounter in 2009, his cousin Uzair Baloch took charge of his network, a rise now dramatised for audiences who may know his name only from the movie screen.