KARACHI: Sunni cleric and lecturer of Jamia Binoria, Maulana Masood Baig was gunned down by unknown assailants in North Nazimabad's Hyderi area on Wednesday.

The cleric, who was the son-in-law of renowned cleric and head of Jamia Binoria Mufti Naeem, was shot while heading home from Karachi University by assailants riding a motorbike. Masood died on the spot.

More than a dozen people have lost their lives in a spate of what is being described as sectarian killings in recent days despite a Rangers-led targeted operation underway in the city.

On Saturday, the elder son of former senator Allama Abbas Kumaili, also a cleric, was gunned down and his two guards were wounded in a targeted attack in Azizabad. Allama Ali Akbar Kumaili, 40, was shot dead in what was found to be a sectarian attack by investigators.

Ali Akbar Kumaili, father of four, was known for his oratory skills and for his style of addressing Majalis-i-Aza.

The Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen had demanded on Sunday that an army operation be launched in Karachi immediately on the pattern of North Waziristan, as the killing of Allama Ali Akbar Kumaili had "exposed the hollow claims" of success of the ongoing targeted operation.

Editorial: Sectarian killings

The editorial extract below was originally published on July 28, 2014

Karachi, beset with various gangs perpetuating their brand of violence, in particular offers little security against those bent upon using their own interpretation of faith to exterminate the ‘other’.

There are few that feel secure in this buzzing commercial metropolis, but those who possess names that easily give away their sect are more vulnerable than others. Educated professionals have been frequently hit in this sect-based violence — but those lower down the occupation ladder have not been spared either. In fact, the regular occurrence of sectarian tension — and not only in Karachi — has given it a sense of something permanent.

Once, not too long ago, an incident of sectarian killing anywhere in the country would have various groups of people up in protest and the government vowing to catch and punish the attackers. With time, and amid an increasing number of incidents of sectarian violence, government officials were gradually reduced to offering empty statements of solidarity with the targeted. Now, even this formality has been done away with.

Promises have lost their purpose because nobody believes them now and because they have not been accompanied by a plan of action.