A senior official of the Geological Survey of Pakistan was among three people gunned down by unidentified gunmen in Quetta in the latest incidents of sectarian violence in the troubled Balochistan province. Police said assailants opened fire at a shop near Burma Hotel on Quetta’s Sariab Road, severely injuring two people. Both men, identified as Abdul Kareem and Saleh Mohammad, passed away while being transported to a hospital. Earlier in the day, in an apparent sectarian attack, Mohsin Ali Naqvi, a member of the Shia community, was gunned down outside his office on Sariab Road, said Mohammed Ayaz, a senior police official. Naqvi, was a deputy director with the Geological Survey of Pakistan. “We are investigating the crime but it seems a case of sectarian killing. There is a wave of sectarian killing in the country and this is part of that,” Ayaz said. Another official at the local police station said the gunmen were waiting for Naqvi at the main gate of his office. “Two gunmen were waiting for him at the main gate of his office. They fired bullets at him from close range and escaped,” said Noor Bukhsh. “His family said they had no feud with anybody and Naqvi was killed because he was a Shia Muslim.” Sectarian violence involving Sunni and Shia Muslims, who account for around 20 percent of the 167 million population, has killed more than 4,000 people since the late 1990s. Last month a Shia judge was shot dead in Quetta along with his driver and police bodyguard.
