Dubai: Masked gunmen on a motorbike shot dead a Saudi man and wounded another in a Shiite village of the kingdom’s Eastern Province, a security official said on Wednesday.
The gunmen opened fire at the two men late Tuesday near Al Reef roundabout in Awamiya, a village in Qatif district, local police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ziad Al Rukayti said.
Police were investigating the incident, he said, as locals said the attack appeared to be criminally motivated rather than linked to troubles between Shiites and security forces in the region.
The predominantly Sunni kingdom’s two-million-strong Shiite minority is mainly concentrated in the sensitive Eastern Province.
A policeman and an armed protester died in clashes earlier this month, the interior ministry said, and two Shiite protesters were killed in July, triggering attacks on government buildings in Qatif.
Qatif witnessed a spate of demonstrations after an outbreak of violence between Shiite pilgrims and religious police in the Muslim holy city of Madinah in February 2011.
