Fear and panic grip Pakistan’s largest city as a gangster is shot in an attack mirroring the Bollywood blockbuster Dhurandhar
The streets of Karachi’s infamous Lyari neighbourhood are on a razor’s edge. A high-profile assassination attempt has shattered the relative calm, triggering widespread panic and fears of a renewed, bloody gang war.
It happened in broad daylight. 40-year-old Zubair Baloch, the younger brother of Pakistan’s most notorious, imprisoned, crime lord, Uzair Baloch, was targeted outside his home in the city. Two masked gunmen on a motorcycle pulled-up close, unleashed a barrage of bullets, and vanished into thin air.
Zubair Baloch is fighting for his life in the intensive care unit of Civil Hospital Karachi. Police say that he sustained severe bullet wounds to his chest and abdomen. Two bystanders were caught in the crossfire — one of whom remains in critical condition.
Zubair Baloch is no ordinary civilian. He has deep-rooted criminal antecedents. Back in 2012, at the absolute peak of the Lyari gang wars, he was slapped with seven criminal cases ranging from extortion to armed violence. He spent over a decade behind bars before his quiet release from prison in January 2025. According to reports, upon his release, Zubair attempted to gain a fresh foothold by joining a local political party — putting up flags across Lyari’s Chakiwara locality — a move that likely painted a fresh target on his back.
What has turned this targeted-hit into an international internet sensation is its uncanny, chilling resemblance to cinema. Media reports are calling this a textbook case of life imitating art because the rise and fall of the Baloch family is the direct inspiration for the Bollywood action-spy thriller, Dhurandhar, directed by Aditya Dhar. This real-life shooting is making headlines because it mirrors the plot of Dhurandhar and its sequel Dhurandhar-2, which heavily feature these exact real-life Karachi gangsters.
In the movie, an undercover Indian agent named Hamza, played by Ranveer Singh, infiltrates these specific Karachi gangs to dismantle terror networks. Another actor, Danish Pandor, portrays a character heavily based on Uzair Baloch — depicting his transition from a local transporter to a heavily-armed cartel leader insulated by political patronage.
The parallels are staggering. In the movie, rival hits are executed exactly like this — masked, motorcycle-borne assailants firing at close-range before disappearing into crowded bazaars.
Lyari has a complex history of political and gang violence. It is the primary urban home of Karachi’s Baloch community, many of whom trace their lineage back to maritime traders and migrants from Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province. Criminal syndicates led by notorious figures, such as, Rehman Dakait and Uzair Baloch, turned the area into a hub for drug-trafficking, extortion, and fierce gun-battles.
Uzair Baloch, born in Lyari in 1970, rose after the 2009 police encounter death of his cousin, the legendary and feared Rehman Dakait. He took control of the Peoples Amn Committee and became one of Karachi’s most powerful crime lords. Arrested in 2016, Uzair was convicted by a military court in 2020 of espionage and sentenced to 12 years. He remains in Karachi Central Jail. In March 2026, an anti-terrorism court rejected his bail pleas in seven cases linked to murder, police-encounters and explosives from a 2012 attack on law enforcers. He has been acquitted in many other cases over the years but the espionage-sentence and remaining cases keep him behind bars. However, Uzair’s empire collapsed when he was arrested. In April 2020, a military-court sentenced him to 12 years in prison for espionage and leaking sensitive state information to foreign intelligence agencies. In March, an anti-terrorism court rejected his bail in seven, additional murder- and explosives-cases. He remains locked away tightly in a high-security facility.
The Pakistani media’s coverage of the shooting has been frantic, reflecting deep anxiety within the State. Some of them are reporting whispers that many exiled gangsters, who fled to the U.A.E. and Iran, are quietly slipping back into Karachi. Police have launched a fresh investigation, interrogating rival-gangs and scanning C.C.T.V. footage to determine if this hit was a personal vendetta or the first shot fired in a brand-new cartel war ….
