Paramilitary soldiers cordon off the site following an attack by gunmen on soldiers guarding a mosque in Karachi yesterday.
AFP
Karachi
Unknown gunmen killed four paramilitary soldiers as they guarded a mosque in Pakistan’s volatile megacity of Karachi yesterday, officials said.
The killers, on three motorcycles, opened fire on the paramilitary Rangers outside the Abu Hurairah mosque in Ittehad Town, a western suburb of the southern city that is infested with Taliban-linked militants.
One of the Rangers survived the assault but died later of his injuries, officials said.
The Rangers as well as the police have been engaged in a three-year long anti-militant and crime operation in Karachi and come under attack by
militants frequently.
Officials suggested the attackers intended to target the Sunni mosque during Friday prayers, when some 500 people were inside and in the adjoining
madrassa (religious seminary).
“Perhaps the mosque and the affiliated madrassa were the target of the terrorists,” Rangers chief Major General Bilal Akbar told media at the spot.
“But our people defied them and embraced martyrdom,” he said.
In March a suicide bomber riding on a motorcycle rammed into a Rangers patrol van, killing at four soldiers.
Since January, 79 policemen have been gunned down in
different parts of the city.
