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Gunmen kill three Pakistani Shiites in northwestern town: police
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Gunmen shot dead three Shiite Muslims in suspected sectarian violence Saturday in a northwestern Pakistani town, police said.
The attackers opened fire on a shop in the main bazaar of Dera Ismail Khan town and fled on a motorbike, local police chief Abdul Ghaffar Qaisarani said.
The shopkeeper, his salesman and a visitor were killed in the attack, Qaisarani told AFP. The dead were members of the Shiite community, he added.
"It might be a sectarian attack. We are investigating the case," another police official said, adding that no arrests had been made.
Shops and markets were closed after the incident, residents said.
Around 80 people staged a demonstration outside the local hospital. Chanting slogans against the attackers, they fired shots in the air, police and residents said.
Shiites account for 20 percent of Pakistan's 160 million, Sunni-dominated population.
The groups usually coexist peacefully, but outbreaks of sectarian violence involving militants from both sides have claimed more than 4,000 lives across Pakistan since the late 1980s.
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