Two Hazara men shot dead in Quetta

TTP affiliate group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claims responsibility for the attack

QUETTA/ ISLAMABAD:

Two men belonging to the Hazara community were killed in gun fire on Quetta's Sariab Road area on Monday, police sources said.

Ghulam Nabi and Mohammad Nabi were on their way home from Machh in a rickshaw when they were targeted near the Government Boys Degree College. Their bodies were later shifted to Civil Hospital, Quetta.

"Gunmen on a motorcycle stopped the rickshaw and then opened fire on them and fled the scene," Abdullah Jan Afridi, a senior police officer in Quetta, told AFP.

Both victims were residents of Alamdar Road, an area dominated by a majority Hazara population.

Five Hazaras gunned down in Quetta

Rescue workers carry the body of one of the deceased. PHOTO: INP

Afridi said the pair were labourers in a coalmine. The rickshaw driver was unhurt in the attack in the Saryab road area.

"We are investigating but apparently it is a sectarian attack," Afridi said.

Noor Baloch, a police surgeon in Civil Hospital Quetta, told AFP both victims were shot in the head.

Security agencies initiated investigation and forensic teams were collecting evidence from the site of the attack.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri condemned the attack and ordered immediate arrest of the attackers.



TTP claims responsibility

Meanwhile, proscribed militant outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) affiliate group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the killing.

"The TTP JA members fired at two Shias," the group's spokesperson, Ehsanullah Ehsan said in a statement.



In June, five people belonging to the Hazara community were gunned down in Quetta’s Circular Road area near Meezan Chowk.

In similar attacks, three Hazara Shias were killed and nine others, including two women, were injured in three separate incidents of ‘sectarian’ violence in Quetta in May.