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Seven soldiers among 10 killed in Karachi army convoy attack

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, June 10, IRNA - At least seven soldiers and two policemen 
were killed early Thursday morning in an attack on a convoy carrying 
local army commander in Pakistan`s violence-stricken port city of 
Karachi, a military spokesman said. 
A passerby was also killed in the firing in the city`s Clifton 
area, military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told a private 
TV channel. 
Local army commander Lieutenant-General Ahsan Saleem Hayat 
escaped unhurt after unidentified gunmen attacked his convoy, 
another report said. 
Sultan said no important personality was harmed in the attack. 
He said the assailants used two cars for the attack. 
The attack is the latest in a series of violent incidents in 
Karachi over the past month. 
Windows of nearby shops and apartments were shattered by the 
gunfire and the subsequent explosion, reports said. 
Security forces surrounded the Clifton area after the incident 
and ambulances shifted the bodies and injured. 
Reports said that a lifted Toyota car, used in the attack, was 
abandoned in Defence View locality. The police have recovered a 
Kalashnikov and bullets from the car. Police said the Kalashnikov 
had blood stains, which show that someone from the attackers may 
have been injured. 
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. The 
attackers fled while firing in the air, according to eye witnesses. 
Karachi has a long history of religious and ethnic violence, 
but the month of May was the worst in recent years - with more than 
50 people killed in different incidents of violence. 
Last month at least 14 people were killed when a man, apparently 
dressed as a religious scholar, blew himself up in a Shia mosque. 
The attack followed by the assassination of a Sunni cleric Mufti 
Nizamuddin Shamzai. 
The police chief of Karachi, Asad Malik, and two other township 
police chiefs were transferred after the wave of violence. 
Chief Minister of Pakistan southern Sindh province Ali Muhammad 
Mehar was sacked this week as part of government policy of changes 
to tackle the law and order crisis. 
A new Chief Minister in Sindh province Arbab Ghulam Rahim assumed 
office Wednesday and his new administration has faced with 
the incident of violence on the first day of office. 
The attack has badly affected trading at the Karachi Stock 
Exchange which opened as the attack was carried out. Reports said 
the index plunged 120 points because of violence fear. 
TK/TSH/1414