Karachi tense over cleric killing

Sunni Muslims rioted on Sunday after the cleric's killing

Thousands of Pakistani troops have been deployed to tighten security on the streets of Karachi following the killing of a Sunni Muslim cleric.

Pro-Taleban cleric, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, was shot as he drove to his religious school on Sunday.

The killing sparked a violent reaction, and on Monday many shops remained closed and cars stayed off the streets.

Police were protecting mosques of the Shia sect. Sunni-Shia violence has killed thousands in the past 15 years.

Police taskforce

A coalition of six fundamentalist parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), has called for a nationwide strike on Friday in protest at Mufti Shamzai's killing.

A senior MMA leader, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, said: "We will not sit silent. We will protest against the brutal murder of a great religious personality.

The car of Mufti Shamzai was ambushed by up to six gunmen

"We will be forced to take other steps if the killers of Nizamuddin Shamzai are not arrested," he said.

A police taskforce has been formed to investigate the killing.

No one has yet said they carried out the attack.

Up to six gunmen ambushed the car of Mufti Shamzai, witnesses said.

One of the 75-year-old cleric's sons, a nephew, a driver and a police bodyguard were wounded.

Mufti Shamzai was a strong critic of the US, urging a holy war after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sunni Muslims, including his students, rioted at news of his death, attacking a police station and burning cars.

Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali called the killing a "dastardly act of terrorism".

The cleric's death came three weeks after at least 14 people were killed in Karachi when a man, apparently dressed as a Shia cleric, blew himself up in a Shia mosque.

As many as 4,000 people have been killed in Pakistan since the late 1980s in Shia-Sunni sectarian violence.