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 have been shifted to Civil Hospital, Quetta.
Both victims were residents of Alamdar Road, an area dominated by a majority Hazara population.
“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.
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.
There was no claim of responsibility. Security agencies have initiated investigation and forensic teams are collecting evidence from the site of the attack.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri has condemned the attack and ordered immediate arrest of the attackers.
In June, Five people belonging to the Hazara community were gunned down in Quetta’s Circular Road area near Meezan Chowk.
Unidentified armed men on two motorcycles opened indiscriminate fire on the victims outside tea shops.
Four of them died on the spot, while one person was shifted to CMH Quetta, where he succumbed to his injuries.
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.
Following the attack, members of the Hazara community staged a protest against the killing. They also resorted to aerial firing, forcing shopkeepers to close their shops.
