PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Gunmen ambushed a car in a bazaar in northwest Pakistan, killing four people including three Shiite Muslims, a day after a bomb at a Shiite mosque left four dead, officials said.
The suspected sectarian attack happened in the main market in the troubled town of Hangu, 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Peshawar, said local mayor Khan Afzal.
"Police have launched a probe to arrest the killers who chased the vehicle carrying the four men as it left nearby Raeesan village for Hangu bazaar," Afzal told AFP on Tuesday.
Three of the victims were members of the same Shiite family while the fourth was a driver from the Sunni Muslim community.
The incident in Hangu, which has a history of sectarian violence, came a day after four people were killed in a bomb explosion in a Shiite mosque in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan.
Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's 160 million, Sunni-dominated population.
The groups largely coexist peacefully but outbreaks of sectarian violence have claimed more than 4,000 lives across the country since the late 1980s.
Four dead in suspected sectarian ambush in Pakistan: official
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Gunmen ambushed a car in a bazaar in northwest Pakistan, killing four people including three Shiite Muslims, a day after a bomb at a Shiite mosque left four dead, officials said.
The suspected sectarian attack happened in the main market in the troubled town of Hangu, 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Peshawar, said local mayor Khan Afzal.
"Police have launched a probe to arrest the killers who chased the vehicle carrying the four men as it left nearby Raeesan village for Hangu bazaar," Afzal told AFP on Tuesday.
Three of the victims were members of the same Shiite family while the fourth was a driver from the Sunni Muslim community.
The incident in Hangu, which has a history of sectarian violence, came a day after four people were killed in a bomb explosion in a Shiite mosque in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan.
Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's 160 million, Sunni-dominated population.
The groups largely coexist peacefully but outbreaks of sectarian violence have claimed more than 4,000 lives across the country since the late 1980s.
