Political and ethnic violence has flared in Pakistan's financial capital Karachi for the second time in two weeks, killing 12 people after the murder of another local politician, officials said on Friday.
Obaidullah Yousufzai from the Awami National Party (ANP), a partner in the coalition ruling the southern province of Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital, was killed in a drive-by shooting on Thursday.
Yousufzai's assassination sparked panic in the teeming city of 16 million, where markets closed and streets emptied as gunfire erupted overnight.
"Hospitals in the city have received 12 bodies of the victims of targeted killings. All received one or more gunshots," a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"The gunfire continued in different parts of the city and also injured 44 people. Ten of them are in a serious condition."
A senior security official confirmed the death toll, saying the city was again in a state of shock with traffic thin in tense neighbourhoods.
About 85 people were killed in Karachi's deadliest episode of so-called targeted killings earlier this month after a lawmaker from coalition partner Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was shot dead by gunmen.
Karachi is plagued by ethnic and sectarian killings, crime and kidnappings, exacerbating woes in a country battling with unprecedented flooding that has killed up to 1,500 people and affected around 20 million.
Tensions are high between MQM and the ANP, which represent different communities in Karachi, straddling political faultlines in the city.
The government has not released exact figures, but the rights groups said over 260 targeted killing cases were reported in Karachi during the first six months of the year, compared with 156 during the same period in 2009.