PESHAWAR, Pakistan, July 8 (UPI) -- Three Chinese workers were killed and a fourth was seriously wounded in a shooting incident near Peshawar, Pakistan.
The incident occurred Sunday in a three-wheel auto-rickshaw factory in the town of Khazana, near Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier.
A police official was quoted as saying robbery may have been the motive for the shootings, but the report also cited a witness as saying the gunmen had their faces covered and shouted religious slogans when they began shooting, China's Xinhua news agency reported Monday.
The injured Chinese worker was taken to a local hospital, the report said.
The shootings come as Pakistani forces are locked up in a nearly week-old standoff with radical Islamic students occupying a mosque. Fierce gun battles between the two sides already have claimed several lives.
The students, demanding the imposition of strict Islamic laws in the city, have carried out kidnappings -- including those of police officers and some Chinese -- since they took over the mosque. Those kidnapped were later released.
In a separate report, Xinhua said the Pakistani foreign office condemned the killings but said the incident would not affect the Sino-Pakistan friendship.
China is one of Pakistan's closest allies.
