Four Shia Hazara traders were killed and three others injured in a shooting incident in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. According to reports, at least four persons were killed and three others injured in this targeted attack on members of the Shia Hazara community in Quetta, according to reports in The Balochistan Post.
Police said that unidentified gunmen opened fire on vegetable vendors in the Hazar Ganji area, a locality on the outskirts of the city known for its wholesale market. The victims belonged to the Hazara community, which has faced repeated incidents of violence in the past. Radical Sunni Islamist groups, often backed by government agencies, have carried out the selective killings of the Hazara community every once in a while in different parts of Pakistan.
According to police, the attackers, believed to be riding a motorcycle, targeted civilians at Hazarganji Fruit Market and escaped within minutes. The victims were reportedly engaged in routine trading activities at the time of the incident. The injured were transported to Civil Hospital Quetta, where medical officials confirmed that some of the wounded were in critical condition. Security forces reached the scene shortly after the attack and cordoned off the area while an investigation was launched. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting.
In the aftermath of the incident, protests broke out in parts of the city. Demonstrators, including members of the Hazara community, staged a sit-in on the Western Bypass, placing the bodies of the victims on the road as part of their protest. The blockade caused significant disruption to traffic, with commuters stranded for several hours.
Protesters demanded immediate justice, enhanced security measures, and accountability from the authorities, accusing the government of failing to protect vulnerable communities. Officials have yet to issue a detailed statement on the incident, though security has reportedly been heightened in sensitive areas across Quetta.
Meanwhile, several people were killed and injured after unidentified gunmen opened fire on civilians in Afghanistan’s Herat province, officials and local media reports said. According to the BBC’s Pashto service, at least 12 people were killed and 15 injured in the attack, including two women. However, a spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry put the death toll at seven. Sources told the BBC that 12 bodies had been transferred to a hospital following the incident, while a doctor in Herat said the victims were Hazara Shia Muslims.
Shia Muslims, primarily from the Hazara ethnic group, are a minority in Afghanistan and have been targeted in previous attacks. Ahmadullah Muttaqi, head of the Department of Information and Culture in Herat, said late on April 11 that the shooting took place in the Deh Mehri area of Enjil district, where armed men opened indiscriminate fire on civilians who had gone there for recreation.
He said four bodies and 15 wounded people, including two women, had been taken to the Herat regional hospital. Muttaqi described the incident as “an act of terrorism” and said security forces had arrested one suspected attacker, adding that further investigations were underway.
It is not clear whether the two attacks on Hazara Shias, one in Quetta and the other in Herat, which claimed a total of 16 lives, were linked. It needs to be said that extremist Sunni groups move between Quetta and some areas of Afghanistan relatively freely. Besides, the members of the same group are present at both places. In both incidents, no group has claimed responsibility.
