20 killed in violence in Pakistan's Karachi

ISLAMABAD - At least 20 people were killed during the last 24 hours in the fresh wave of violence in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, local media reported.

According to the reports, a total of nine people were shot dead in different areas of the city on Monday while 11 others were killed by unknown shooters during the first few hours of Tuesday morning.

In the first incident of Tuesday morning, some unknown gunmen riding on a motorcycle sprayed bullets at a person when he came out of his house along with his horse, leaving both dead, in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of the city, the business hub of Pakistan.

In two other incidents, some unidentified people shot dead three people in the Defense area and killed two persons in the Korangi Town on Tuesday morning. Police also found five bullet ridden bodies in different localities of Karachi that spread panic among citizens.

Police officials said that all the five deceased were kidnapped and tortured before there were killed.

Since the start of targeted operation by police and Rangers on Sept 6, a big drop in violence and targeted killings was observed in the city, but Monday killings started a new wave of shooting.

The targeted operation was launched after a special cabinet meeting presided by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved the targeted operation to deal with the deteriorating situation in the business hub of the country during the first week of September.

Police and Rangers had reportedly arrested over 3,000 suspects so far in the ongoing targeted operation in the country's violence-hit city against terrorists, target killers, kidnappers and extortionists.

Rangers and police have also recovered heavy cache of weapons including automatic guns, pistols, hand grenades and homemade bombs from the possession of the detained people from different hideouts.