(MENAFN- Arab News) KARACHI: Unknown gunmen killed four paramilitary soldiers as they guarded a mosque in Pakistan's volatile megacity of Karachi Friday officials said.
The killers on three motorcycles opened fire on the paramilitary Rangers outside the Abu Hurairah mosque in Ittehad Town a western suburb of the southern city that is infested with Taliban-linked militants.
One of the Rangers survived the assault but died later of his injuries officials said.
The Rangers as well as the police have been engaged in a three-year long anti-militant and crime operation in Karachi and come under attack by militants frequently.
Officials suggested the attackers intended to target the Sunni mosque during Friday prayers when some 500 people were inside and in the adjoining madrassa (religious seminary).
'Perhaps the mosque and the affiliated madrassa were the target of the terrorists' Rangers chief Maj. Gen. Bilal Akbar told media at the spot.
'But our people defied them and embraced martyrdom' he said.
In March a suicide bomber riding on a motorcycle rammed into a Rangers patrol van killing four soldiers.
Since January 79 policemen have been gunned down in different parts of the city.
Separately in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar two gunmen shot dead local Shiite leader Imdad Hussain senior police official Mian Saeed told AFP.