Karachi carnage claims nine lives

Nine people have been killed in the latest outbreak of violence in Pakistan’s largest and most populous metropolitan city, Karachi.

Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said gunmen opened fire on a car carrying a police officer in the Malir Memon Goth area of the city on Thursday. The officer died on the sport while his driver sustained gunshot wounds.

The assailants later fled the scene and their whereabouts remain unknown.

Security forces cordoned off the area and initiated a search operation after the attack. However, no arrests have been reported so far.

Police recovered two tortured bodies from a house in the same area earlier in the day. The unidentified corpses were shifted to a nearby hospital.

Separately, armed men shot dead a woman in Super Highway area of Karachi on Thursday. Unidentified assailants also gunned down two members of a political party in Jamali Goth area.

Likewise, attackers fatally shot a police constable during an exchange of fire in the Lyari area of Karachi.

Assailants also opened unprovoked firing at a market in Karachi, killing two people.

The port city has experienced a fresh wave of violence and targeted killings over the past few months.

Karachi is home to numerous ethnic groups and has been hit by clashes between rival ethnic and political factions for the past two decades.

Militants in Pakistan have carried out numerous attacks against security forces as well as civilians and managed to spread their influence in various regions of the country, despite frequent offensives by the Pakistani army.

Thousands of people have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered an alliance with the US in the so-called war against terrorism.