Sectarian violence: Two Hazaras shot dead in Quetta

Three others killed in drive-by shootings; two bodies found in Khuzdar

QUETTA:

After a relatively long hiatus, sectarian violence returned to haunt the troubled city of Quetta on Saturday. Two members of the Shia Hazara community were killed in a targeted attack in the Spini Road neighbourhood.  

Gunmen riding a motorcycle opened indiscriminate fire on a car and fled the scene unidentified and unchallenged, a police official told The Express Tribune.

“As a result, Izatullah was killed on the spot, while his friend Muhammad Hassan was fatally wounded. Hasan died en route to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH),” the official added. The two men belonged to the Hazara community. The bodies were handed over to their heirs after medico-legal formalities at the hospital.

The victims were coming to the city from the Hazara-dominated town of Krani  when their vehicle was targeted. Citing initial investigations, the police said the attack appears to be motivated by sectarian hatred.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the outlawed Jaishul Islam extremist group had claimed credit for a similar killing of two Shia community members on Arbab Karam Khan Road a couple of days ago.

Hours after the Hazaras killing, three men were shot dead in driver-by shootings in different neighbourhoods of the city.

Gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on Muaviya General Store located on Jan Muhammad Road and fled the scene. “Two men were killed and five wounded in the attack,” a police official said. The casualties were driven to the Civil Hospital where medics referred the injured to the CMH for treatment of their life-threatening wounds.

In a second incident, gunmen targeted an unidentified man on Patel Road. “The man was walking on the road when the gunmen shot him dead,” the police official said. The body was shifted to Civil Hospital’s mortuary for identification.

Elsewhere in the restive province, two bullet-riddled bodies were found in the Naal Kambi area of Khuzdar district on Saturday. Local police said unidentified men killed the two men and dumped their bodies in an unfrequented area of Naal Kambi. “The two men were shot at point-blank range multiple times,” a police official told The Express tribune.

The bodies were ferried to the District Headquarters Hospital where the victims were identified as Muhammad Murad and Faqeer Muhammad, residents of the Jhao area of Awaran.


Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2015.