Pakistan: 5 killed in shooting on Shia congregation

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - At least five Shias, including a woman, were killed and several others injured when gunmen opened fire on a congregation in Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi on Saturday, police said.

The incident, the latest in a series of sectarian attacks, occurred in Karachi’s central district, where over 50 people, mostly women, were attending religious observances at a house, Nasir Aftab, a city police chief, told reporters.

Eyewitnesses told police that four assailants riding two motorbikes fired wildly on the people, who were standing outside the house with small weapons. Four people were killed on the spot, while a woman succumbed to her wounds at the hospital, Aftab said.

At least six people were also injured – two of them seriously – in the shooting, the police chief said.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but security forces suspect hardline Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi might behind the incident.

A Sunni-majority country, Pakistan has a long history of sectarian violence, with thousands of Shias and Sunnis having been killed in tit-for-tat violence over the last three decades.

Shia Muslims account for roughly 10 percent of Pakistan’s total population of some 200 million.