Gunmen kills 8 in Pakistan’s Karachi

Karachi — Gunmen on motorcycles Sunday shot dead eight people including an eight-year-old girl at a faith healer’s house in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, police and doctors said.

At least 12 others were also wounded in the shooting at Baldia Town, a low-income Karachi neighbourhood, as dozens of people waited for their turn to see the faith healer.

“Six gunmen on three motorcycles stormed into the house and started indiscriminate firing,” senior police official Irfan Baloch told AFP.

“At least eight people were killed and 12 others were wounded,” Baloch said, adding that the dead included an eight-year-old girl and her father.

The assailants fired 9mm pistols, a weapon used in a spate of targeted killings in the restive city, he added.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Faith healer Pir Meharban Shah, who provides spiritual healing services, received a bullet wound to his abdomen and said he had not received any threats prior to the attack.

There was a power outage in the area when the attackers entered the house shortly after dark and started firing, he added.

Doctor Aftab Chanarh at Karachi’s state-run Civil Hospital confirmed the casualties.

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city with 18 million people, has been plagued by sectarian, ethnic and political violence for years.

Rangers are currently taking part in a joint operation with police in Karachi aimed at cleansing the city of terrorists and other hardcore criminals, including hired killers, gun runners and drug peddlers.