ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Gunmen in Pakistan killed a leading prosecutor working on high-profile terrorism cases and the death of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and an anti-Taliban politician and his son, the latest violence ahead of next week's national elections.
Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali was heading to a court in Rawalpindi, where he was trying a case stemming from the death of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated while she was campaigning for her party.
Ali's attackers opened fire on his car as it passed through an Islamabad neighborhood, police said.
He was rushed to a hospital, but died before arrival, said hospital spokesman Dr. Wasim Khawaja.
The ambush also wounded his bodyguard, whom authorities assigned to protect him after he received threats from the Pakistani Taliban, according to police spokesman Javed Hussain.
The unidentified gunmen fled and are still at large, police officials said.
In Karachi, gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed Sadiq Zaman Khattak and his 4-year-old son when they were leaving a mosque, said Zahid Khan of Awami National Party, an anti-Taliban liberal party.
Khattak, representing the Awami National Party, had been a candidate for a seat in the National Assembly. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, and Khan blamed "interim government" and election officials.
The Taliban has threatened the ANP and another liberal party, the Muttahida Quami Movement. It has claimed responsibility for some deadly attacks against those party members.
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari issued a statement in which he strongly condemned the attack on Ali and called for an investigation to "expose the real culprits involved in the murder."
Bhutto had returned from a self-imposed, eight-year exile to campaign for the Pakistan People's Party in the country's general elections in 2007. She escaped one attempt on her life, but was killed on December 27, 2007, by a 15-year-old suicide bomber while campaigning in Rawalpindi, the seat of Pakistan's military.
Bhutto twice served as prime minister and was the country's first woman to hold the office.
Ali has linked the assassin's alleged facilitators, whom he was prosecuting, to the Pakistani Taliban, a claim the court has yet to confirm.
The Pakistani Taliban, who are closely linked with their namesake in Afghanistan and with al Qaeda, operate in the ungoverned area that sits on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Police officials have also been arrested in the investigation, which has lasted nearly six years.
Ali was also involved in the case of the terror attacks that struck Mumbai, India, in November 2008.
Ten heavily-armed men, some from Pakistan, attacked landmarks there, including high-end hotels, the city's historic Victoria Terminus train station and the Jewish cultural center Chabad House.
They killed more than 160 people in three days.