Gunmen kill 2 soldiers in Karachi

Two Pakistani soldiers were shot dead Tuesday when motorcycle gunmen opened fire on their pick-up truck in the southern city of Karachi, officials said.
Dr. Kaleem Shaikh, at Jinnah Post Graduate Medical College, told AFP that the dead men had been identified as Khadim Hussain and Abdul Razzaq.
Both were shot in the head and face, he said.
“Razzaq died after reaching hospital while Hussain also died of his wounds after some time,” Shaikh added.
Police said the soldiers, who belonged to an intelligence agency, were patrolling a crowded area of the southern city when their vehicle was attacked.
“The attackers were on a motorcycle and managed to escape through the congested narrow lanes,” senior police officer Raja Umar Khattab told Reuters.
Pakistan launched a major crackdown on militants and criminals in the city, which is the country’s economic hub, in 2013 and levels of violence have dropped drastically since then.
The killing of army personnel outside Pakistan’s northwestern restive tribal areas on the Afghanistan border and southwestern Baluchistan remains rare.
Last December two army men were gunned down in a parked military vehicle in Saddar area, a few kilometers away from Tuesday’s incident.
Karachi police chief Mustaq Mehar said investigators would examine if there was any link between the two killings.
The city of 20 million is frequently hit by religious, political and ethnic violence.

Source: Arab News