File Photo. Rizwan Tabassum—AFP
Extremist group Jaish-ul-Islam has claimed responsibility for the attack that left two men dead.
Gunmen in Quetta shot dead two Shia Muslims who had emigrated from neighboring Afghanistan almost a decade ago to escape violence there, police said Sunday.
Two men opened fire Saturday night on the family, from Afghanistan’s Hazara community, who were at a bus station in Quetta preparing to travel to Karachi. “A man of about 65 years of age and his 18-year-old grandson were killed in the firing at the bus terminal at Sariyab road,” said Imran Qureshi, a senior police official.
Two other men and two women family members managed to run away and take shelter. The gunmen escaped on a motorbike. Qureshi said the family had migrated from Afghanistan almost a decade ago to escape war in their homeland.
A man describing himself as a member of the banned Sunni Muslim extremist group Jaish-ul-Islam called media outlets to claim responsibility for the attack.
Quetta is the capital of Balochistan province, which is torn both by a separatist insurgency and violence directed against Shias. They make up around 20 percent of Pakistan’s population, which is largely Sunni Muslim.
According to a report by a Human Rights Watch, more than 400 Shias were killed in targeted attacks across the country in 2013.