Islamabad, July 30: At least seven Shia pilgrims were gunned down on Friday in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province while seven people were killed in fresh wave of ethnic and sectarian violence in Sindh’s provincial capital in the last 24 hours.
The Shia pilgrims were killed at a bus stand in Saryab district of Balochistan’s provincial capital Quetta in the afternoon, according to police officials.
“They were waiting for a bus preparing to go to Iran for a religious pilgrim when unidentified gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on them with automatic weapons. Four were killed on the spot while three died later at the hospital,” senior police official Farid Baloch said.
The attack is the latest in a trend of violent incidents in the country’s restive southwestern province hit by sectarian killings and attacks by separatists on security forces and government officials.
Baloch said the attack was clearly sectarian in nature and the Shia Muslims were targeted in the capital of the oil-and gas-rich province that borders Iran and Afghanistan.
The outlawed Sunni extremist group ‘Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’ claimed responsibility for the brazen attack.
Ali Sher Haidri, a spokesman for the group said it was a revenge for the murder of scholar Maulvi Karim, who was killed in Quetta in firing on Thursday.
Most Pakistanis are Sunni Muslims, but the country has a significant Shia minority.
In Pakistan’s financial hub Karachi, seven more people died in target killings since last night.
Police said the men were killed in different areas of the city which has had a bloody month with nearly 200 killed in different outbreaks of violence.
–Agencies