PAKISTAN: A Pro-Taliban cleric was shot dead in Karachi yesterday, sparking riots which led to the looting of shops and banks, and approximately 20 people being injured on the streets.
A gang of six people on motorbikes and in cars shot at Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai as he drove out of his home, fatally wounding the religious leader and also hitting his son, another relative, a bodyguard and a driver.
Mr Shamzai's supporters took to the streets, and police and protesters exchanged gunfire, injuring at least three police officers and four demonstrators. Angry crowds shouted slogans against Shia Muslims, raising fears of sectarian unrest.
Mr Shamzai, who had called for a jihad, or holy war, against the United States after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, died of gunshot wounds in a nearby hospital. No group claimed responsibility for the killing.
Mr Shamzai had been a friend of the Taliban's leader, Mullah Omar, and was said to have met Osama bin Laden.
Mr Aftab Shaikh, an adviser to the Pakistani government, told reporters that Mr Shamzai's shooting had been a targeted killing. It was his work promoting a hardline brand of Sunni Islam, known as Deobandi after its origins in that Indian town, which had made Mr Shamzai a powerful figure in Karachi politics.
Students from madrassas linked to his seminaries filled the streets yesterday, setting alight shops and attacking vehicles.
More than 10,000 police and paramilitary rangers were deployed as security forces blocked Karachi's main roads.
Meanwhile, four US soldiers assigned to a special forces unit were killed yesterday in Afghanistan's southern province of Zabul.