Four members of a Christian family among nine killed in Quetta attacks

The victims were travelling in a rickshaw when armed men on a motorcycle intercepted them and opened fire

QUETTA: Four members of a Christian family were gunned down in Quetta on Monday.

The family was travelling in a rickshaw when armed men on a motorcycle intercepted them and opened fire in Quetta city.

A woman was rushed to hospital. Her father and three cousins were killed. "It appears to have been a targeted attack," provincial police official Moazzam Jah Ansari  said. "It was an act of terrorism," he added.

The attack comes a day after Pakistan's Christian community celebrated Easter on Sunday. Around two per cent of Pakistan's population are Christians.

Meanwhile five people, including a Levies official, were martyred, while five others sustained injuries in a clash between two groups in the city's Qambarani Road area.

According to police sources, two groups opened fire at each other following a dispute. As a result, four people were killed on the spot, while seven others were wounded.

The bodies of Takri Ghulam Rasool Bangulzai, Bashir Ahmed, Abdul Hameed, Levies personnel Naveed Ahmed and the injured were rushed to the Civil Hospital, Quetta.

One of the injured Amanullah succumbed to his injuries during treatment.



The three injured were identified as Pir Muhammad, Machi Khan and Abdul Hameed while the two others injured were not yet identified.

The bodies of the deceased were handed over to the heirs after completion of medico- legal formalities.