When five unidentified hitmen sauntered into Sohail Maqbool Hussain's ground floor office at God's Gift building at Yari Road, Andheri, at 11.45 am, and fired seven bullets at him, they also notched up the 14th consecutive shootout in the last 12 days and the 95th shootout of the year. A total 84 persons have been shot dead in Mumbai this year. October 1998 has thus recorded the highest number of shootouts for a single month ever, the second highest being April 1998 which took a toll of 15 persons followed by June with 12 killings.

Sohail, suspected of having underworld links, is the third of five brothers in the family to be shot dead by gangsters since 1991. All five siblings are suspected to be closely linked with Mumbai's underworld.

Sohail's assailants sped off in a waiting car and have not been traced since. Aftertaking seven bullets in the forehead, neck and shoulder, the builder slumped to the ground from his swivel chair and was declared dead before admission to hospital.

Eyewitnesses said two of the hitmen trained their guns on Sohail's Hussain's business partners, Chandubhai Aswani and Kamalbhai, while the others pumped lead into their associate's body. The key assailant has been described as tall with long hair. He spoke to his associates in Marathi asking them to remove Sohail's revolver from his bag. This indicated that they had prior information about the builder's .32 licenced revolver.

Aswani who like Sohail, has been a director of S S Builders for more than six years, was taken to the D N Nagar police station to identify photographs of the suspects. He, however, in shock and therefore unable to make a positive identification.

Police though suspect the killers are members of the Chhota Rajan gang who were intent on avenging the death of their associates at the hands of Chhota Shakeel hitmen. Relativesalso claim Sohail had been receiving death threats since the last few months.

While Sohail's antecedants are still being checked, police sources say the builder had earlier been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch in a case relating to a property dispute. All five brothers were businessmen, dealing in real estate, garments and gems. Sohail's younger brother Farid was shot dead in an identical manner at his Silver Stone Exports office at Bhendi Bazar in October 1996. Investigattions had revealed that the killers were from the Chhota Rajan gang.

The eldest brother Sayyed Razvi alias Rajji was killed near Bandra Reclamation by a death squad sent by the Arun Gawli gang in 1991. He was a key associate of underworld boss Dawood Ibrahim and used to oversee the gangster's landing operations in the city.

Gawli's key hitmen Tanya Koli, Mohan Mali, Ganesh Bhosale, Namdeo Patil, Vijay Tandel and Bandya Adilkar were later arrested from two concealed bunkers in Dagdi Chawl following theshootout. Feroz, the fourth brother, fled to Dubai, fearing for his life.

Only yesterday, Sajid Siakander alias Kalia and Irfan Iqbal alias Fighter, allegdly members of the Chhota Rajan gang, were shot at when they were travelling in a taxi near Worli. One of them later died in hospital.