QUETTA: A shutter-down strike was observed in Quetta on Monday after the previous day’s Hazara killings as shops and business centers at Bacha Khan Chowk, Alamdar Road and Liaquat Bazar remained closed.

On Sunday, police sources said suspected militants opened fire at two shops near Bacha Khan Chowk, the city's commercial hub, killing five people belonging to the Hazara community.

Later, around 500 people from the community took to the streets in protest against the incident, carrying the coffins of the deceased. The protesters placed the coffins of the victims on the road and chanted slogans against the government for failing to protect them.

Police and security forces on Monday said they had arrested five suspected militants involved in recent acts of targeted killings in Quetta.

The arrests came after Police, Frontier Corps and anti-terrorist forces conducted raids in various parts of Balochistan’s capital in the aftermath of repeated acts of targeted killings in the city, the latest of which took out five Hazara men on Sunday.

Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, while addressing an emergency press conference alongside Quetta CCPO Razzaq Cheema on Monday, said one of the arrested terrorists was also involved in the attack at Quetta’s Khalid Air Base.

Three blindfolded suspects were also produced before the media during the home minister’s press conference. Quetta CCPO Razzaq Cheema said weapons were recovered from the possession of those arrested, adding that there was a one million rupees bounty on one of the suspects.

Bugti said all arrested terrorists belonged to banned outfits and were involved in recent acts of targeted killings in the city.

The minister also slammed India’s premier spy agency for involvement in the recent streak of violence in Balochistan. He said the recent incidents were part of a large conspiracy against the proposed Pakistan-China Economic Corridor.

“The enemies cannot tolerate Pakistan’s development,” said Bugti.

The Hazara community has been the target of brutal terrorist attacks in the past.

Explore: Timeline: Hazara killings in Balochistan.

But in the past two weeks several incidents of targeted killings have been reported in Quetta, in which members of the Hazara community have lost their lives.

Read: Two Hazara men killed in Quetta and Three Hazara people among four killed in Quetta.