Unidentified gunmen today opened fire on a vehicle carrying minority Shias near Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, killing at least five persons, police said.
The incident took place in the town of Mastung, about 75 kilometers south of Quetta, when gunmen riding a motorcycle targeted their car en route to Karachi. The assailants escaped after carrying out the attack, Geo TV reported.
"The indiscriminate firing killed four family members of the Hazara Shiite community, including a woman. Later, the driver succumbed to his injuries in the hospital," police official Muhammad Ishaq said.
Police and other Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) personnel reached the site and started an investigation into the incident.
However, no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Khan Zehri has strongly condemned the incident and grieved over the loss of precious lives. He has asked the police officials to prepare a report of the incident and bring the culprits behind the bars.
This is not the first time that the Hazara Shia Muslim community has been targeted by extremist outfits in Balochistan and in the last few years hundreds have been killed in either suicide bomb attacks, planted bomb blasts or target killings.
Official reports say that they have been around 1200 incidents of violence against the Hazara community in the last 15 years.
In March, an explosion targeting a convoy of the security forces occurred on Saryab Road. Four people were injured including three Frontier Corps personnel and a passer-by.
On May 12, a suicide bomb blast targeting the convoy of a senior politician in Balochistan killed at least 26 people and wounded 30 others. The blast in Mastung struck a vehicle carrying Senate Deputy Chairman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, shortly after Friday prayers.
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