QUETTA, Pakistan, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Gunmen attacked a passenger bus Tuesday near Quetta city in Pakistan's Balochistan Province, killing at least 13 of the passengers, police said.
The Tuesday morning attack occurred in the Akhtarabad area as the bus was traveling to Hazar Ganji from Quetta, Geo News reported. It quoted eyewitnesses that said the gunmen riding motorcycles stopped the bus, dragged some passengers off and shot them and later began firing on the vehicle indiscriminately, killing and wounding more people. The gunmen escaped.
Quetta police official Ahsan Mehboob said all the 13 people killed were Shiite Muslims, CNN reported.
Shiites are a minority in Sunni-majority Pakistan and have been the victims of similar sectarian violence in the past. Quetta, capital of Balochistan, has a large Shiite population.
The victims were mostly shopkeepers and merchants traveling to their shops at a market outside Quetta, Mehboob said.
The report said angry residents set fire to a bus at a Quetta hospital where the injured were taken.
On Sept. 7, two suicide bombers attacked the Civil Lines area of Quetta, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 40 people.
In addition to sectarian violence, resource-rich Balochistan Province has been the scene of militant violence. Baloch rebels have been fighting for autonomy, demanding a greater share of the region's income from Islamabad.
