Gunmen kill four paramilitary soldiers outside Pakistan mosque

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 major general 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.

Following the attack, members of the city's Shiite community blocked the main highway in Peshawar, placing Hussain's coffin on the road to protest the killing, an AFP reporter said.

Sectarian violence -- in particular that carried out by Sunni militants against Shiites, who make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan's population of 200 million -- has claimed thousands of lives in the country over the past decade.

A third attack was also reported on Friday after two traffic police officers were shot to death by gunmen on motorbikes in Atmanzai, some 40 kilometres (about 25 miles) northeast of Peshawar, according to district police chief Shafiullah Khan.

No group has claimed responsibility for the shooting yet, but Taliban militants have been active in the area and carried out several attacks against police and security officials in the past.

Caption: Pakistani paramilitary soldiers cordon off the site following an attack by gunmen on soldiers guarding a mosque. (The Malaysian Insider)