Banaras Khan—AFP
Attackers targeted policemen while they were patrolling low-income neighborhood in Quetta.
Gunmen on motorcycles shot dead four policemen on Saturday in Quetta, police said.
The shooting took place in Pashtunabad, a low-income neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital of Balochistan province when policemen were patrolling the area. “Four gunmen on two motorcycles sprayed bullets on a police vehicle and four policemen were martyred,” said senior police official Abul Razzaq Cheema. Another senior police official Aitzaz Goraya confirmed the incident and said it was an act of terrorism.
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but Baloch separatist groups demanding more autonomy and control over province’s gas and mineral resources have frequently targeted security forces and police for years.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a statement “strongly condemned” the killings and said “such incidents cannot weaken [the] government’s resolve in eliminating the menace of terrorism and extremism.”
The province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, is also riven by sectarian strife and Islamist violence.