(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - According to the local media reports, the attack took place at about 4:00 p.m. local time at the Saryab Road of the city when some unknown gunmen coming on motorcycles stopped a passenger van heading from Quetta to Mach, a small town nearby Quetta.
The gunmen pulled out some of the Shia Muslims on board and started firing at them, the local media reports quoted eyewitnesses as saying, adding that the attackers fled the scene after the killing.
On Tuesday afternoon, a similar attack took place near Quetta when several gunmen coming in vehicles stopped a passenger bus carrying an estimated 60 Shia Muslims while on their way from Quetta to Iran for pilgrimage.
The gunmen forced all the passengers on the bus to get off and line up before they starting firing at them. As a result, 26 people were killed on the spot and some 30 others were wounded.
Later a banned Sunni extremist group called "Lashkar-e-Jhangvi" (LeJ) claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Local watchers believed that the attack could be a retaliation by LeJ over the killing of four Sunni Muslims belonging to the group in southern Punjab province several days ago.
Friday's attack on the Shia Muslims with the similar method in Quetta could be a revenge taken by LeJ over the arrest of its top leader Malik Ishaq in his home town of Rahim Yar Khan in southern Punjab on Thursday night, said local reports.
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