Senior Sunni muslim cleric killed in Karachi

Gunmen riding in two cars and a motorcycle opened gun fire on a pick up truck carrying a senior Sunni Muslim cleric in the violence-prone Pakistani city of Karachi today, killing him and wounding four other people, police said.

The cleric – Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai – died of gunshot wounds in a nearby hospital. He was attacked while driving to an Islamic seminary that he headed in an eastern Karachi neighbourhood, said Fayyaz Qureshi, a Karachi police official.

A body guard of Shamzai returned fire and wounded one of the six attackers, Qureshi said, quoting witnesses.

Among the four people who were injured in the attack on Shamzai was one of his sons, a nephew, his driver and two body guards, Qureshi said. None of them were seriously hurt.

Shamzai, who was in his 70s, headed Jamia Islamia Binor Town, where thousands of students get Islamic education.

His killing is likely to spark violence by his supporters.

No one was arrested for the attack and there was no claim of responsibility for involvement.

Karachi – Pakistan’s largest city of 14 million people and the country’s commercial centre – has been the scene of recent sectarian violence and attacks on westerners.

Much of the violence is blamed on Islamic militants, who have been angered by President General Pervez Musharraf’s decision to ally with the US-led campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan.