Pakistan: Gunmen kill 4 members of Shiite family, driver

QUETTA, Pakistan – Pakistani police say gunmen riding on a motorcycle opened fire, killing four members of a Shiite family and their driver in the country’s southwest.

Local police chief Mohammad Ishaq says the drive-by shooting took place in the town of Mastung, about 75 kilometres (45 miles) south of the city of Quetta, Baluchistan’s provincial capital.

He says a woman was among the four family members killed and that the family’s driver was Sunni.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but outlawed Sunni extremist groups have claimed similar attacks in the past. Sunni extremists view Shiites as apostates deserving of death.

Baluchistan has also been the scene of a low-level insurgency by separatists demanding more autonomy and a greater share in the region’s natural resources such as gas and oil.