Pakistani secret agents shot dead

Karachi has seen several police operations against militants

Two Pakistani intelligence agents involved in tracking al-Qaeda suspects have been shot dead in the southern port city of Karachi, police say.

Inspector Mohammad Ibrahim and his deputy, Fazlur Rahman, were employees of Pakistan's main civilian spy agency.

The men were attacked late on Thursday at a car showroom in a commercial area.

Pakistan's main cities are routinely the scene of attacks by Islamist militants opposed to Islamabad's support for the US-led "war on terror".

The teeming city of Karachi also frequently witnesses clashes between the supporters of rival sectarian and political groups.

The men shot dead on Thursday were the apparent victims of a "targeted killing", a police spokesman told the Associated Press news agency.

A senior intelligence official quoted by the AFP news agency said the two were at "the forefront of anti-Al-Qaeda operations in Karachi".

"They were involved in the arrests of many of the terror network's operatives in the past two months," the official was quoted as saying.

The men were employed by the Intelligence Bureau, the only one of Pakistan's three spy agencies that is controlled by the civilian interior ministry, rather than by the military.