News / Pakistan

Gunmen kill two Pakistani soldiers in Karachi

Tuesday, 26 July 2016 3:11 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 26 July 2016 3:32 PM ]

Pakistani soldiers examine an army vehicle at the site of an attack by gunmen in Karachi, July 26, 2016. (AFP)

Heavily armed assailants shot dead at least two soldiers Tuesday in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, security and medical sources said.

Raja Umar Khattab, a senior counter-terrorism police officer, said a military vehicle came under attack while patrolling the busy Saddar district.

The official added that two gunmen apparently escaped on a motorbike after firing several shots at the vehicle. "The attackers were on a motorcycle and managed to escape through the congested narrow lanes."

Medical sources at Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital confirmed that multiple bullets hit both slain soldiers in the shoulder, neck and head. One of the troops died on the spot while the other died in the hospital.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but officials usually blame such assaults on pro-Taliban militants.

Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, has been wracked by political, ethnic and sectarian violence over the past two and a half decades.

According to statistics compiled by the Sindh provincial police, of the 1,019 killings in Karachi last year 70 were policemen. So far in 2016, 390 people have died in targeted killings in the city.

In June 2014, a deadly raid on Jinnah International Airport in Karachi ended the government’s faltering peace talks with pro-Taliban militants. Since then, Islamabad has been engaged in a major offensive against militant hideouts.

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