9 killed in shootings in Karachi

Nine persons, including a senior leader of a religious party and three employees of a TV news channel, were shot dead in Pakistan's biggest city within the space of a few hours today.
Express News channel reported three of its employees - a driver, a guard and technician - were gunned down in Nazimabad area of Karachi this evening.
"We have lost out long serving driver, a security guard and a technician who were gunned down near the board office tonight," a spokesman of the channel said.
He said armed men on motorcycles stopped stopped one of its vans and fired indiscriminately.

A cameraman, who was injured in the attack, took three wounded persons to hospital where they died.
Few hours later, a spokesman of the Tehrik-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

"We have carried out the attack because this channel is biased and works against us," he told the channel.
Earlier in the day, unidentified gunmen targeted a car with several workers of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-S on Shahrah-e-Faisal, a key thoroughfare of the city.
Three persons, including senior leader Mufti Usman Yar Khan, died in hospital.
"The three men were taken to hospital, where they breathed their last. A fourth passenger in the car was wounded," SSP Aamir Farooqi said.

Three other persons were killed by target killers in different parts of the city, taking the death toll in shootings in Karachi to nine.
Karachi has witnessed a wave of violence and targeted killings in recent days. On January 9, SSP Chaudhary Aslam, one of Pakistan's top anti-terror officials, was killed by a Taliban suicide bomber.
City police chief Shahid Hayat announced special security measures for his force after 18 policemen were gunned down in the past few weeks. Last year, 175 policemen were targeted in the city.