Gunmen kill four in Pakistan's southwest

Sources : thetelegraph.com.au

GUNMEN have shot dead four Shi'ite Muslims, in a fresh sectarian attack in Pakistan's troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan.

All those killed on Tuesday ran junk and scrap shops in Kabari Market in Quetta, the provincial capital where sectarian and separatist violence is common.

"It was a sectarian attack. Gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on them and drove away," Asif Ghafoor, a senior police official, told AFP.

The province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is plagued by sectarian violence between the minority Shi'ite and majority Sunni community, as well as by Taliban attacks and a separatist insurgency.

Riasat Ali, another police official confirmed the incident and told AFP that the victims were critically injured and died on their way to hospital.

Sectarian violence involving Sunni and Shi'ites, who account for around 20 per cent of the population, has killed thousands of people since the late 1990s.