On July 6, 2015, two minority Shia Muslims were gunned down in the street in Quetta, Pakistan, in a continuing terrorist campaign to kill religious minorities. Police officer Ajab Khan Kakar stated: “It is a sectarian targeted killing.” The July 6 attacks included killing the two Shia Muslim men outside of a passport office, as well as police officer. The two Shia men were part of the Hazara community, which is a predominantly Shi’ite Muslim ethnic group.
July Attack in Quetta on Shia Muslims by Terrorist (Source: Reuters/Naseer Ahmed)
A second attack also happened on July 6. According Samaa News, “Hours later, a manager of local NGO was gunned down by unknown assailants outside his residence in Jinnah Town area of Quetta. The victim was identified as Abdul Rauf. Police said all the murders were result of ‘targeted attacks’.”
The attack on minority Muslim Shi’ite houses of worship and individuals has been continuing throughout this year, with over 100 killed this year. This has included a terrorist attack on Shia Muslim killing 45 on a bus in Karachi in May 2015, as well as killing 62 in a suicide bombing on a Shia Muslim mosque in January 2015. Minority Shi’ite Muslims comprise about 20 percent of the Pakistan population of 180 million.
Senior police officer Abdul Razzak Cheema stated that he blamed Muslim extremists for the attacks, saying the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi extremist group was possibly involved. He stated that “The boys, in their twenties, were killed in the shooting while their parents were wounded and a policeman who was passing by the site was also killed after he shot and wounded one attacker.”