Pakistan sacks seven police officers over Shia killing

Pakistan has fired several police officers who were on duty when unidentified gunmen shot dead six Shia Muslims in Quetta. Gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire on a shoe store killing six Shia Muslims and injuring three others in the capital of Balochistan province on Monday, said a police officer. Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani sacked six police officials for dereliction of duty. “It was most probably a sectarian incident but the police are investigating,” another officer added. Seventeen suspects have also been arrested in connection with killings of Shia Muslims in the Hazara region. No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the Monday's attack so far, but the region is rife with banned sectarian terrorist groups such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, which has conducted numerous terrorist operations against Shia Muslims over the past two decades. Local sources say more than 2,000 Shia Muslims have been killed in the Kurram region close to the Afghan border since 2007.