Daily Times

QUETTA: Gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on a moving bus and killed four women from the Hazara community in an apparent sectarian attack, officials said on Tuesday.

The gunmen sprayed the vehicle with bullets in the outskirts of Quetta city. At least two motorcyclists on a bike fired at the bus when it reached close to Hazara town, said Abdul Razzaq Cheema, a senior police official while talking to AFP. He said that two people, including a female, were also wounded in the attack. “The bus was travelling from one locality of Hazara 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.

“It was a public transport bus and had eight women on board, out of which five were hit during the attack,” said the Quetta DIG (operations) while talking to a private channel.

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, while security in and around the hospital was tightened. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Taliban have attacked Hazaras in the past.

Sectarian violence – in particular by Sunni hardliners against Shias – has claimed thousands of lives in the country over the past decade.

In May last year, 43 members of the Ismaili community were killed when their bus was stopped and riddled with bullets in Karachi by militants claiming to be affiliated with the Islamic State.