Leading cleric killed in Karachi

By Zaffer Abbas
BBC correspondent in Pakistan

The cleric died on the way to hospital

Unidentified gunmen have shot dead a prominent Sunni Muslim cleric in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

Mufti Mohammed Jamil was on his way home when the two gunmen blocked his car and fired indiscriminately from automatic guns, a top policeman said.

Nazir Ahmed, another colleague of Jamil's non-political Islamic organisation, was also killed.

Earlier this week, bomb attacks on a Shia mosque and a Sunni gathering in Punjab killed more than 70 people.

So far no-one has claimed responsibility for the latest attack and officials in Karachi said it was too early to blame any particular group.

Growing violence

The gunmen were on a motor-cycle and fled after firing several rounds, according to the policeman.

The two clerics were hit several times and died on the way to the hospital.

Mufti Jamil was a highly respected religious figure and the news of his death sent shock-waves across Karachi and the rest of the country.

Even though sectarian violence between the extremist groups of the majority Sunni and minority Shiite communities was not uncommon in Pakistan, this has particularly been a bad month for the law enforcement authorities.

A bomb explosion in a Shia mosque in the city of Sialkot in the Punjab province on Friday killed more than 30 people.

It was followed by a car bomb on Thursday outside a gathering of a Sunni Muslim group in Multan in which 40 people died.

After the two incidents the government moved immediately to step up security outside all the mosques and imposed a complete ban on political gatherings by religious groups.

But the latest incident suggests the militant groups have not been affected by such measures and can strike at will.