...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
on Friday, police said, while a separate attack killed three people who worked for a private television channel.
A front man for Karachi police said attackers sprayed bullets at the car of Usman Yar Khan, the provincial deputy chief of Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam
...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability...
, a religious party headed by
Samiul Haq...the
Godfather of the Taliban,leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as
Mullah Sandwichfor his habit of having two young boys at a time...
known in the West as "father of the Taliban".
"The gunnies fled away after the shooting and the injured were shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center where Usman Khan and two of his associates died while a third is at death's door" he said.
In another attack in the port city, gunnies killed three people who worked for a private television channel.
"Three people were killed when gunnies attacked a DSNG (digital satellite news gathering) vehicle of the privately run Express News in the western district of the city", police chief for the western district Javaid Odho told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"The dead included a technician, the driver and a guard," he added.
It followed an attack on Express News in December.
Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said last month that Pakistain was among the world's five deadliest countries for the media in its annual round-up of press freedom violations.
Rangers are currently taking part in a joint operation with police in Karachi aimed at cleansing the city of snuffies and other hardcore criminals including hired killers, gun runners and drug peddlers.
Karachi, a city of 18 million people which contributes 42 percent of Pakistain's GDP, has been plagued by sectarian, ethnic and political violence for years.