Pakistani Gunmen Kill Shi'ite Muslims In Southwest

Gunmen have killed two Shi'ite Muslims in southwestern Pakistan.

Police said the killings on July 22 happened when gunmen opened fire on a taxi in Quetta, the capital of the restive Balochistan Province.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but a banned extremist Sunni organization, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, usually claims responsibility for such attacks.

The group has staged numerous large-scale attacks against the Hazaras, a tiny Shi'te minority group.

Balochistan has experienced a spike in violence in recent years.

The province is also the scene of a decades-old insurgency by Baluch nationalists, who are demanding greater autonomy and a larger share of profits from the region's mineral resources.


Based on reporting by AFP and BBC Urdu