KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Dr. Jafar Naqvi and two colleagues were driving home on a quiet road when a car cut them off and two men jumped out wielding automatic weapons. The doctors backed up and sped away.
They survived, but other physicians in this sprawling port city of 12 million people have not been so lucky. Thirteen doctors - most of them Shiite Muslims - have been slain this year in Karachi.
Police and doctors believe the attacks are part of a campaign by militants from the majority Sunni community to spread terror here and undercut efforts by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to crush Islamic extremism in the nation of 147 million.
Religiously based attacks have increased dramatically here and elsewhere in Pakistan since Musharraf launched the crackdown Jan. 12.
"Doctors are the soft target," Dr. Haseeb Alam said. "But their killings make a big impact and create fear and frustration in the society."
The murders have panicked Karachi's 13,000-member medical community. On Wednesday, doctors staged a one-day strike, forcing hospitals to turn away hundreds of patients.
Dr. Tipu Sultan, president of the Pakistan Medical Association, said many doctors are afraid to go to their clinics. Eleven emigrated to other countries in a single week, he said.
"They are unable to concentrate on work," he said. "I sometimes even forget the names of medicines."
Gov. Mian Mohammed Somroo promised to step up security, but the medical association said it has yet to see any change.
Nadeem Zaidi, whose elder brother Dr. Safdar Zaidi is among the physicians killed, said it is especially dangerous for people with surnames closely identified with Shiites, who make up about 15 percent of Pakistan's overwhelmingly Muslim community.
Sunni Muslim extremists consider Shiites heretics because some of their beliefs differ from those of the majority sect.
"My brother returned from the United States after 12 years in August 2000 to live in his own country, to use his expertise here," Zaidi said. "He wasn't affiliated with any political party or religious group, but still he was killed."
The older Zaidi was shot to death March 4 by two men riding a motorcycle in the same neighborhood where Naqvi was attacked.
Asad Jehangir, a senior police official in Karachi, said the banned group Sipah-e-Sahaba, or Guards of the Friends of Prophet Mohammed, was suspected in most, if not all, the killings.
Sipah-e-Sahaba is among the extremist groups banned by Musharraf. Police have arrested six members of Sipah-e-Sahaba in connection with attacks on doctors.
Naqvi says the police measures have given him little sense of security. And the memory of his brush with death remains seared on his mind.
The night he and his colleagues sped away, the gunmen pursued them. After a flat tire and a broken axle, the doctors fled on foot, managing to make it to a house where the residents gave them shelter. The gunmen abandoned the chase.
"I couldn't see much because my colleague Dr. Bilal was urging us to keep our heads down," the 68-year-old kidney specialist said. "We had been reading stories about the killings of doctors and thought that it is our turn now."
Naqvi is taking no more chances. An officer armed with an assault rifle stood outside his examining room.
At the main gate of the posh private hospital, several private security guards holding pump-action shotguns asked visitors their names, then searched pockets and bags before allowing them to pass.
"I used different cars and routes for safety after death threats by anonymous callers," Naqvi said. "But in 45 years of practice, I never felt the need of armed security guards. Until now."