Shia Ismaili Muslims' housing society had got threat year ago

A housing society of the Shia Ismaili Muslims in Pakistan's volatile Karachi city near which IS militants today gunned down 45 members of the minority community, had received threats of a major attack a year ago, according to security sources.

The residents of the Al Azhar Housing Society near Safoora Goth had received death threats from unidentified persons one year back, a security source said.

For a few months, the Ismaili community was given proper security but after some time when everything remained peaceful the security was slowly withdrawn, the source added.

He said investigators have also found a pamphlet of the Islamic State at the site of the attack this morning proclaiming the advent of the terror group in Pakistan.

In the latest cold-blooded sectarian violence targetting the minority Shia community, six to eight motorbike-borne assailants opened fire indiscriminately at a bus ferrying over 60 people to a community centre to stop it.

The attackers killed 45 people - 26 men and 17 women - and wounded more than 20 others before fleeing from the scene, police said.