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Gunmen shot dead a top Pakistani defence official outside his home in the southern port city of Karachi, the Online news agency reported.
Syed Zafar Hussain, director of the research department in the defence ministry, was getting into his car to leave for work when he was gunned down in the Nazimabad area.
According to the police, Hussain was shot five times by three armed men on a motorcycle. Two bullets hit his eyes and head while three tore through his stomach. He was rushed to the Abbasi Shahid hospital, but died on the way.
Hussain had been with the defence ministry for 35 years and was named last year to head the research department.
The stunning murder came after gunmen shot dead Shaukat Mirza, managing director of Pakistan State Oil, in Sind, and two high-profile political leaders in Punjab -- former minister of state for foreign affairs Siddique Kanju and Mohammad Aslan Joiya -- over the weekend.
Police said a red alert was sounded in Islamabad and other major cities following Saturday's killing of Kanju and Joiya near a barbershop at Lodhran town, about 100km from Multan.
Three men in their early 20s got out of a car and opened fire with automatic revolvers. Kanju was seriously wounded and died on his way to hospital.
The killing of Kanju, a seasoned parliamentarian, shocked the country. President Pervez Musharraf joined the nation in denouncing the murder. It also sparked street protests.
Former prime minister Mir Balakh Sher Khan Mazari said in a statement: "I condemn this act of naked terrorism."
Kanju was a close aide of former prime minister Nawaz Sharief until the military toppled his government in October 1999. He later joined a dissident Pakistan Muslim League group.
Indo-Asian News Service
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