KARACHI: Two students were shot dead while others critically wounded in an attack on a restaurant near a prominent seminary in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on Wednesday, police and hospital officials said.

Gulshan SP Tanveer Hussain said that the victims belonged to the Jamia Dar-ul-Khair.

They added that the students were having tea at the restaurant in Block-15 after Isha prayers when they were attacked.

The victims were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where doctors pronounced two of them dead on arrival while three were admitted for treatment, said Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the emergency department.

The deceased were identified as Hayatullah and Ali Ahmed. The wounded were identified as Imran, Abdul Ghani and Ismail. All of them were in a critical condition, added Dr Jamali.

The attack on seminary students triggered a violent protest on the main road leading to the Samama shopping centre.

“This is the third attack on the seminary students over past two years,” said the spokesperson for Jamiat Ulema Islam (Sami-ul-Haq group) to whom the seminary belonged. The JUI-S spokesperson, Hafiz Ahmed Ali, added that the seminary head and JUI-S central leader Mufti Usmanyar Khan was also gunned down on Sharea Faisal recently.