Girl Among 8 Shot Dead in Pakistan

Gunmen killed eight people, including a young girl, in a politically motivated drive-by shooting on Sunday, police said.

They said that the gunmen fired at a group of people sitting out in front of a Karachi shop in the evening. Five people, including another girl, were injured.

Police said reports from witnesses were confused. Some said gunmen on a motorbike sprayed the storefront with bullets, while others said several vehicles were used in the attack.

Spokesmen for the mainstream wing of the Mohajir National Movement political party blamed the attack on a rival wing of the splintered party. They accused police of failing to give proper protection to known activists.

Shoad Buhari, a provincial minister in the party, said the breakaway Haqiqi faction was to blame. “All this happened within sight of paramilitary rangers and police. The Haqiqi were to blame.”

The shooting followed the weekend slaying in a similar drive-by shooting of two Iranian engineers and the bombing of a mosque.

Business leaders voiced fears that the Karachi violence could drive away foreign investors, crucial to the government’s economic recovery plan.

“It’s a very serious issue. Such incidents give a very wrong signal to foreign investors and businessmen,” said Hanif Janoo, president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, after Iran protested about the “terrorist” killing of its nationals.

More than 50 people have been killed in ethnic, sectarian and political violence in Karachi this year.

More than 400 such killings occurred in 1997, 500 in 1996 and 2,000 in 1995.