QUETTA, Pakistan – Gunmen opened fire on a bus in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan in a suspected sectarian attack yesterday, killing at least 26 Shia Muslim pilgrims travelling to Iran, police said.
Four assailants attacked the bus carrying more than 50 pilgrims near Mastung town about 50km from the provincial capital of Quetta.
“They opened fire on the bus from all four sides. Then they got into the bus and fired again,” a police official in Mastung said.
Three more people were killed when gunmen opened fire on an ambulance near Quetta as it headed to the attack site in Mastung.
Sunni Muslim militants loyal to al-Qaeda and the Taliban have carried out high-profile attacks on members of Pakistan’s Shia minority in the past.
“Two vehicles intercepted the bus. Forced all the passengers off and opened fire. Many of them fled,” the driver of the bus, Khushal Khan, told reporters at the scene. “They were eight to 10 men and they were carrying rocket launchers and Kalashnikovs.”
Sunni militants have stepped up attacks against Shias in Baluchistan in recent months. Ethnic Baluch militants have been waging a low-level insurgency in Baluchistan for years for more autonomy and greater control over natural resources of the region. Officials say there is no evidence linking them with Islamist militants.
At least 10 Shias were killed in a suicide bombing near Quetta on the Muslim festival of Eid on August 31st.
Pakistan has seen a surge in violence since al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces in a secret raid in a Pakistani town in May.
Militants have vowed revenge for his death.