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Gunmen Kill Four Shi'ite Ethnic Hazara Women In Quetta, Pakistan


FILE: Members of Pakistan's Hazara community protest against attacks in Quetta, Balochistan.
FILE: Members of Pakistan's Hazara community protest against attacks in Quetta, Balochistan.

Gunmen on the outskirts of Quetta, Pakistan have killed four Shi'ite women from the ethnic Hazara minority after stopping a passenger bus that they were traveling on.

Another woman sustained serious gunshot wounds in what authorities described as sectarian-motivated killings.

Anwarul Haq Kakar, a spokesman for Balochistan’s provincial government, said the attackers stopped the passenger bus on Quetta's Kirani Road on October 4 as it was returning to a neighborhood known as Hazara Town.

Kakar said one of the gunmen barged inside the bus and started shooting after identifying the women as ethnic Hazara.

Balochistan's Chief Minister Nawab Sanullah Khan Zehri condemned the attack and ordered an investigation into the mass murder.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Shi'a have been targeted before by Sunni extremists in Quetta's Hazara Town.

In February 2013, 64 people were killed and more than 180 injured in Hazara Town by a bomb attack at a market on Kirani Road.

With additional reporting by The Express Tribune

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