Soldiers shot dead in Pakistan's Karachi: officials

Karachi - The killing of army personnel outside Pakistan's northwestern restive tribal areas on the Afghanistan border and southwestern Baluchistan remains rare.

Two Pakistani soldiers were shot dead Tuesday when motorcycle gunmen opened fire on their pick-up truck in the southern city of Karachi, officials said.
Dr Kaleem Shaikh, at Jinnah Post Graduate Medical College, told AFP that the dead men had been identified as Khadim Hussain and Abdul Razzaq.
Both were shot in the head and face, he said.
"Razzaq died after reaching hospital while Hussain also died of his wounds after some time," Shaikh added.
Pakistan launched a major crackdown on Islamists and criminals in the city, which is the country's economic hub, in 2013 and levels of violence have dropped drastically since then.
The killing of army personnel outside Pakistan's northwestern restive tribal areas on the Afghanistan border and southwestern Baluchistan remains rare.
Last December two army men were gunned down in a parked military vehicle in Saddar area, a few kilometres away from Tuesday's incident.
Karachi police chief Mustaq Mehar said investigators would examine if there was any link between the two killings.
The city of 20 million is frequently hit by religious, political and ethnic violence.
According to statistics compiled by provincial police, 390 people have died in targeted killings this year so far, of whom 18 were police.
Of the 1,019 such killings last year 70 were policemen.

• Pakistan