Pakistan Rangers stand guard after the firing incident in Karachi on October 29, 2016. Two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a Shiite Muslim gathering in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi, killing five people, police and hospital officials said. (AFP
KARACHI, Pakistan: Gunmen on motorcycles killed at least four people at a religious gathering of Shi’ites in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, on Saturday, police said, in the latest attack claimed by the militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s Al Alami faction.
The shooting took place in the North Nazimabad neighbourhood of the sprawling metropolis of more than 18 million people, where sectarian, ethnic and political violence is common.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s Al Alami faction, which targets Shi’ites and Pakistan’s security forces, killed more than 60 police cadets in the southwestern city of Quetta on Monday in an attack in conjunction with Islamic State.
But it said it carried out this attack on its own.
“Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami accepts responsibility for those killed in this attack, and we announce that there is no room for the enemies of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Pakistan,” said Ali bin Sufyan, the group’s spokesperson, in a statement.
Provincial police chief Allah Dino Khwaja told reporters men on two motorcycles fired on the gathering.
Four people were killed and another three wounded, Nasir Aftab, a senior police officer, said.
Violence and crime has dropped significantly in Karachi since the launch of a paramilitary operation in the city three years ago, but targeted attacks still occur frequently.
