...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
, police said.
All those killed ran junk and scrap shops in the Kabarhi Market in Quetta, the quiet provincial capital where sectarian and separatist violence is common.
"It was a sectarian attack. Gunmen on
cycle of violences opened fire on them and drove away," Asif Ghafoor, a senior police official, told AFP.The province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is plagued by sectarian violence between the minority Shia and majority Sunni community, as well as by Taliban attacks and a separatist insurgency.
Riasat Ali, another police official confirmed the incident and told AFP that the victims were critically injured and died on their way to hospital.
The victims of the shooting were from the Hazara community, the APP said in its report.
Sectarian violence involving Sunni and Shias, who account for around 20 per cent of the population, has killed thousands of people since the late 1990s.
Despite having large reserves of oil and gas, Balochistan remains one of Pakistain's most impoverished provinces, and kabooms and attacks on police and security forces are common.
In 2004 Baloch rebels rose up, demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's mineral resources.