Four killed in suspected sectarian attack

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.