Parliamentary candidate shot dead in Pakistan

PanARMENIAN.Net - A candidate standing for the May 11 elections to the Pakistan parliament was shot dead in the southern city of Karachi on Friday, May 3 in the second high-profile assassination in the country in one day, RIA Novosti reported.

Sadiq Zaman Khattak, a candidate for the Awami National Party, died in the attack with his three-year old son, according to Dawn.com website. They were shot dead while leaving a mosque in the city's Korangi district.

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an outlawed Islamist militant group.

Khattak is the third election candidate already to die in violence in the run up to the polls, which has claimed 70 lives and seen 350 injured.

The Taliban last week posted flyers in cities across Pakistan threatening death to anyone taking part in the elections, either as candidates or voters.

The May 11 elections will return candidates to the lower house of parliament and regional assemblies.

Earlier on Friday, Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, the investigating prosecutor in the trial of the killer of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was shot dead by gunmen on a motorcycle near Rawalpindi.