World | Pakistan
Four killed in suspected sectarian attack
Suspected pro-Taliban militants gunned down four people in the northwestern region on Tuesday in what appeared to be the second deadly sectarian attack in two days.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:53 June 17, 2008
Kohat: Suspected pro-Taliban militants gunned down four people in the northwestern region on Tuesday in what appeared to be the second deadly sectarian attack in two days.
A Shiite leader attributed a recent spate of attacks on members of his community to pro-Taliban militants seeking to open a new front.
The latest attack in the town of Hangu saw gunmen in a car targeting a group of men in the main market.
"The men were from the same family and were killed on the spot. It appears to be a sectarian attack," said senior Hangu police official Quresh Khan.
The attack came a day after four Shiites were killed in a bomb attack on a mosque in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
Also on Tuesday, police in Hangu found the body of a Shiite taxi driver who had been kidnapped last week.
"It's shocking. It could be the work of militants fighting in tribal areas who may want to open a new front or foreign hands who want uncertainty in Pakistan," said Abdul Jalil Naqvi, a leader of a Shiite party, the Islami Tehrik.
Shiites make up about 15 per cent of the country's population of 160 million.
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