Alwaght- At Least five Shiite Muslims were killed on Monday morning after Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a vehicle carrying members of the Hazara community in Baluchistan Province, the second terror attack targeting members of the Shiite community in less than a week.
Senior police officer Malik Nisar said the assailants opened fire on a pick-up truck carrying a group of Hazara Muslims in the provincial capital, Quetta, killing five of them on the spot.
The attackers fled the scene and are now at large, according to the official.
Local police Chief Hidayat Ullah said two other passers-by were also wounded in the attack.
Four of the bodies were handed over to their families in Quetta, hospital officials said, adding that one of the deceased is still in the morgue.
A Pakistani Shiite Muslim, center, mourns a death of his family member in Quetta, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 9, 2017.
No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility, but Shia Muslims of the Hazara community frequently come under attack by Taliban-affiliated, ISIS and other militant groups active in Baluchistan.
Last week, the ISIS terror group carried out a bomb attack against a Shiite shrine in a remote Baluchistan village, leaving two dozen people dead. A similar assault on the same shrine had killed 35 people back in 2005.
The violence against Shiite Muslims has claimed thousands of lives in the country over the past decade.
Pakistan security forces have been engaged in operations against the terrorists in Baluchistan Province.
Elsewhere, an official said at least three soldiers were shot dead by gunmen, who attacked their vehicle in the tribal region of North Waziristan. Eight soldiers were also wounded in the incident.
North Waziristan was a stronghold of the Taliban militant group until 2014, when Pakistan’s military launched a major offensive and pushed many of its militants across the border into Afghanistan.
