Gunmen kill 4 minority Shias in Pakistan

No one claimed the fatal shooting. Sunni extremists view Shias as apostates deserving of death, and have carried out several sectarian attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent years.

In this Feb. 21, 2013, photo, Pakistani Shia Muslim children hold candles and banners next to photographs of people, who were killed by a bomb blast in market on Saturday, February 16, 2013, in Quetta, Pakistan. Terrorized by ferocious attacks that have killed nearly 400 ethnic Hazaras in the past 18 months, with almost half of those deaths occurring in the first two months of this year, Shia leaders blamed the inaction of Pakistan’s security service for the rising violence against them in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province.

Pakistani police say gunmen have shot and killed four Shia Muslims in an apparent sectarian attack.

Police officer Mohammad Khan said on Monday that two other people were wounded in the overnight shooting near Quetta, in the southwestern Baluchistan province.

Those killed were members of the Shia Hazara, a minority group in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mr. Khan says they were traveling to Quetta from Afghanistan but he was not sure of their nationality. The vehicle was attacked when they stopped for fuel.

No one claimed the fatal shooting. Sunni extremists view Shias as apostates deserving of death, and have carried out several sectarian attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent years.