QUETTA: At least four people, including a police officer and a 14-year-old girl, were killed Saturday in separate incidents of violence in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.
In the first reported incident, police said armed militants shot dead a police officer and critically injured his son in the Sariab road area.
Imran Qureshi, the Superintendent of Police, said two militants on a motorcycle sprayed bullets at the vehicle of Assistant Sub Inspector Police Kudratullah.
He said the son of the ASI suffered serious wounds as a result of the attack. “This was an apparent act of targeted killing,” Qureshi said.
The militants sped away on their motorcycle after the attack. However, the police were quick to reach the site of attack and shift the injured son of the ASI to Civil Hospital Quetta for medical treatment.
Qureshi said the police officer was en route from his residence to the market when he was targeted by militants.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Quetta and other parts of Balochistan have seen a sharp rise in incidents of bombings and targeted killings. The incident comes three days after militants killed two people in the same area.
In another incident of targeted killing, armed men gunned down an Afghan national in the Satellite Town area.
Police said two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire at an Afghan national and killed him on the spot.
“The assailants had not covered their faces,” a police officer, who requested anonymity, told Dawn.com. He added that “it was an act of targeted killing.”
In a seemingly unrelated incident, two people were killed in a firing incident in the city’s Kasi road area, police said.
A police official told Dawn.com that armed men opened fire at a house in Kasi road area and killed the two people including a 14-year old girl. “This was an act of tribal dispute,” said the police official.
The bodies were rushed to Civil Hospital Quetta for postmortem.
