Unidentified gunmen killed at least nine Shi'ite Muslims and wounded eight as they headed to evening prayers in Karachi on Saturday, police and hospital officials said. The three gunmen opened fire as worshippers entered a mosque for dusk prayers in Malir, a low-income area on the eastern outskirts of the restive southern port city. The assailants fled after the shooting.

Karachi police chief Tariq Jameel said, " Our investigations are in full swing, but no arrests have been made so far."
Doctors said two of the wounded were in serious condition.

No group has claimed the attack, which appeared to be a fresh outbreak of the Muslim sectarian violence that has dogged Pakistan, and especially Karachi, for the past decade.

A week ago, unidentified gunmen shot dead a prominent member of a ruling regional party in Karachi, an attack blamed on Islamic militants.

Most of the victims were from the northern Gilgit region of the country, from where many moved to Karachi to find work.

An official of private relief and emergency service, the Edhi Welfare Foundation, said most of the victims were in their early 20's.

Hundreds of people have been killed in religious, ethnic and political violence in Karachi in recent years.

Police blame outlawed extremist Sunni Muslim groups for the killing of Shi'ite Muslims, who make up about 15 percent of the Pakistan's predominantly Sunni population of 140 million.

The government's support for the U.S.-led drive to oust the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network from neighboring Afghanistan has also increased Pakistan's problems

PHOTO CAPTION

Relatives gather around the bodies of Shi'ite Muslims inside a hospital in Karachi February 23, 2003. Unidentified gunmen killed at least nine Shi'ite Muslims and wounded eight as they headed to evening prayers in Karachi, police and hospital officials said. (Zahid Hussein/Re