Shia leader shot dead in Pakistan

Taghrib News Agency (TNA) quote from press TV that unknown armed men opened fire on Chief Coordinator of Imamia Scouts and Muharram committee member, Safdar Abbas, late Thursday, killing him on the spot.

Family sources of Abbas said that he had received threats from anonymous militants.

Additionally, some anti-Shia raids have been carried out in different parts of Pakistan by security forces since Ashura -- the martyrdom anniversary of the third Shia Imam, Hussein ibn Ali (PBUH).

The leader of Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), Maulana Hassan Zafar Naqvi, has reported that 10 Shia Muslims were abducted from different areas of Karachi city by law enforcement agencies.

He has accused the government of failing to end sectarian killings that have claimed the lives of several people.

Earlier, a powerful car bomb explosion killed at least 18 Shia Muslims and wounded 75 others in Pakistan's troubled northwestern Hangu district.

Last year, militants carried out an attack on an Ashura procession in Karachi leaving 43 Shia mourners dead.

According to local sources, more than 2,000 Shia Muslims have been killed in Pakistan's Kurram Agency since the beginning of violent campaign against Shias by pro-Taliban militants in 2007.

Punjab has also seen a series of violent attacks in recent months against its Shia community, which makes up one-third of Pakistan's population of 160 million.