QUETTA, Pakistan, April 28 (UPI) -- Gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a female professor at Pakistan's Balochistan University in Quetta as she traveled in a rickshaw, police said.
Nazima Talib, 50, an assistant professor of mass communication in the troubled province, was struck twice on the head by bullets and died at a local hospital before she could be treated, Dawn newspaper reported.
A police official said she was probably a victim of target killing. The Dawn reported the Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility with a spokesman saying by telephone the attack on Talib was in retaliation for the earlier killings of two Baloch women and the torture of female political workers.
Balochistan, a resource-rich area, has been a troubled province in Pakistan with armed Baloch rebels demanding a greater share of the region's income from Islamabad and autonomy. Critics say the Pakistani military has been putting down the rebellion in the region which it sees as a haven for militants.
A mother of a son, Talib, who had taught at the university for 23 years, was also a poet and a short story writer, Dawn reported. The university's academic staff association announced three days of mourning.
