Gunmen Kill 2 Shiites, Policeman in Pakistan Sectarian Attack

Gunmen on Monday shot dead two Shiite brothers and a policeman at a passport office in the Pakistani city of Quetta, officials said, the latest sectarian attack to strike the country's restive southwest.

The brothers, who belonged to the Hazara ethnic group that is predominantly Shiite and easily recognized by their Central Asian features, were entering the city's passport office along with their parents when the waiting gunmen opened fire.

"The boys, in their twenties, were killed in the shooting while their parents were wounded and a policeman who was passing by the site was also killed after he shot and wounded one attacker," senior police official Abdul Razzaq Cheema said.

He added that two gunmen were involved in the shooting but they had others assist them in escaping the scene.

Akbar Hussain Durrani, home secretary of the Baluchistan province confirmed the shooting and the casualties. Police later said they had arrested one wounded suspect, who claimed he was not an attacker but a passerby.

Members of Hazara community protested by placing the bodies of victims, wrapped in shrouds, outside the regional police chief's office, witnesses said.

No group immediately came forward to claim responsibility for the shooting, which came a day after a bomb attack in a crowded marketplace in the same city killed one and wounded eight.

The blast was claimed Monday by sectarian groups Jaish-ul-Islam and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which have flourished in recent years despite being outlawed.

Sectarian violence -- in particular by Sunni hardliners against the Shiites that make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan's 200 million people -- has claimed thousands of lives in the country over the past decade.

Forty-five Shiite Ismailis were massacred in the southern city of Karachi in May in the first attack in the country claimed by the Islamic State group.

The worst atrocities, however, have struck the southwestern province of Baluchistan, home to some 200,000 Shiites, according to local organizations.

The deadliest attack so far, in January 2013, saw a suicide bomber blow himself up in a small snooker hall. About ten minutes later, when rescue workers had rushed to the scene, a truck packed with explosives that had been parked near the hall was detonated. The overall toll was close to 100 dead.