Islamabad Unidentified gunmen yesterday shot dead three political workers in a residential neighbourhood of Karachi in a continuation of targeted killings in the country's biggest city and financial hub, police said.
The deadly attacks were reported in Organi Town, one of the disturbed areas of the port city. According to local television channels, all the victims belonged to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which leads the governing coalition in southern Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital.
Recurring violence linked by authorities to political and ethnic rivalries and criminal mafias has claimed scores of lives in Karachi over the past three months despite crackdowns and stepped-up patrolling by police and paramilitary forces.
The previous year witnessed hundreds of killings in different parts of the city, home to about 20 million people of diverse linguistic and racial backgrounds. The promise of better jobs is Karachi's biggest draw for people from other parts of the country.
Daily hardships
In addition to the cycle of violence, residents of the port city are facing severe hardship on account of daily power disruptions, a problem facing the country at large. Recently the supreme court annulled contracts for a string of rental power projects on grounds of corruption and violation of rules.
People have been holding protest demonstrations regularly in different parts of the country against power outages, with the approaching summer season adding to the worries.
