File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP
Two attackers fled scene of the crime, while two policemen were injured in the firing.
Policemen in Quetta shot four suspected militants dead on Friday during a skirmish in a Hazara Shia area, authorities said.
Officials in Balochistan province, of which Quetta is capital, said the incident erupted when policemen tried to signal to a group of men on motorbikes to stop in the city’s Hazarganji area.
“Six suspected persons riding on three motorcycles were spotted by police in the Hazarganji area on the outskirts of Quetta. Police officials signaled to them but they opened fire, four militants were killed after police retaliated,” said Akbar Harifal, home secretary of the province. “Two of the militants managed to flee in the dark of night. Two policemen also sustained injuries during the clash,” he added.
Police identified the militants as belonging to a group with ties to the militant wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). “The killed militants belonged to the sub group of LeJ Jaish-e-Islam (JI),” said Wasey Khan, spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC). “One of the killed militants Doctor Humair was chief of the Quetta chapter of JI,” said Harifal.
LeJ has claimed responsibility for some of the most brazen attacks on Shia Muslims in Pakistan’s recent history, including a January 2013 bombing in Quetta that killed over a hundred members of the Shia Hazara minority group.