Four Shiite women killed in Pakistan bus attack

Gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on a moving bus in Pakistan and killed four women from the Shiite Muslim minority in an apparent sectarian attack, officials said Tuesday.

The gunmen sprayed the vehicle with bullets in the outskirts of Quetta city, the provincial capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

"At least two motorcycle riders on one bike fired at the bus when it reached close to Hazara town. Two people, one male and another female, were also wounded in the attack," Abdul Razzaq Cheema, a senior police official told AFP.

Pakistani security officials and residents gather around ambulances carrying the bodies of Shiite Muslim women killed in an attack by gunmen at a hospital in Quetta ©Banaras Khan (AFP)

"The bus was travelling from one locality of Hazaras to the other," Cheema said.

Qambar Dashti, Quetta city commissioner, confirmed the attack and said it could be sectarian.

"This attack on Hazaras' bus could be sectarian but we are still investigating it," he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Taliban militants have attacked Shiite Hazaras in the past.

Sectarian violence -- in particular by Sunni hardliners against Shiites who make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan's 200 million people -- has claimed thousands of lives in the country over the past decade.

In May last year, 43 members of the Shiite Ismaili minority were killed when their bus was stopped and riddled with bullets in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi by militants claiming Islamic State group affiliation.</s>QUETTA: At least four women belonging to the ethnic Hazara Shia community were killed and one injured when unidentified assailants opened fire on a bus on Kirani road near Pud Gali Chowk area of the provincial capital on Tuesday evening.

"The bus was stopped and the women were shot because of their ethnicity," said provincial government's spokesman Anwarul Haq Kakar.

A senior police official also confirmed to Dawn.com that the deceased women belonged to the ethnic Hazara Shia minority community and were allegedly targeted due to their sect.

"It was a public transport bus and had eight women on board, out of which five were hit during the attack," said DIG Operations of Quetta police.

Police officials said the bus was travelling to Hazara Town when it was attacked by unidentified assailants.

Frontier Corps and police teams were dispatched to the area to control the situation. The injured were taken to Bolan Medical Hospital in Quetta for treatment and security in and around the hospital was tightened.

Chief Minister Balochistan Sanaullah Zehri condemned the incident.

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti, while addressing a press conference, said that Indian agency RAW's involvement can not be ruled out in the attack.

He added the terrorists picked a soft target, and all efforts would be made to arrest the culprits.

Balochistan has been experiencing incident violence and targeted killings since more than a decade. More than 1,400 incidents targeting the minority Shia and Hazara community have taken place in the province during the past 15 years.

While sectarian terrorism in Balochistan has disproportionately targeted the Hazara community, easily identifiable because of their distinctive physical appearance, other Shias — especially pilgrims travelling to and from Iran — have not been spared either.

People receive the body of a family member at a local hospital in Quetta.— AP</s>Quetta: Gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on a moving bus in Pakistan and killed four women from the Shiite Muslim minority in an apparent sectarian attack, officials said Tuesday.

The gunmen sprayed the vehicle with bullets in the outskirts of Quetta city, the provincial capital of the southwestern province of Balochistan.

"At least two motorcycle riders on one bike fired at the bus when it reached close to Hazara town. Two people, one male and another female, were also wounded in the attack," Abdul Razzaq Cheema, a senior police official told AFP.

"The bus was travelling from one locality of Hazaras to the other," Cheema said.

Qambar Dashti, Quetta city commissioner, confirmed the attack and said it could be sectarian.

"This attack on Hazaras' bus could be sectarian but we are still investigating it," he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Taliban militants have attacked Shiite Hazaras in the past.

Sectarian violence – in particular by Sunni hardliners against Shiites who make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan's 200 million people – has claimed thousands of lives in the country over the past decade.

In May last year, 43 members of the Shiite Ismaili minority were killed when their bus was stopped and riddled with bullets in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi by militants claiming Islamic State group affiliation.

Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has oil and gas resources but is afflicted by Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist insurgency.</s>QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say gunmen have killed four women in an attack on a bus carrying members of the country’s Shiite minority in the southwestern city of Quetta.

Police spokesman Shahzada Farhat says another woman and a man were wounded in Tuesday’s attack. Farhat says the attackers fled the scene on motorcycles and that police have launched a search operation.

No one claimed the attack, but the Lashker-e-Jhangvi group has claimed similar attacks on Shiites in the past. Sunni Muslim extremists view Shiites as apostates deserving of death.

Pakistani authorities had heightened security across the country to protect Shiites during the month of Muharram, when they mourn the 7th century martyrdom of the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
An apparent sectarian attack by two motorcyclists who open fire on a bus traveling to Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan, kills four women from Pakistan's Shia Hazara and injures two other people.