QUETTA, March 29: At least eight people, a woman and a policeman among them, were killed and 13 others injured in what appeared to be a sectarian attack on a group of Hazara people and in ensuing clashes between police and protesters here on Thursday.

And two officials of a UN organisation were killed in an attack near Mastung.

According to police, the Hazara people were coming to the city from Hazara Town when four men on motorcycles opened fire on their van on Spiny Road.

“Five people in the van were killed,” DIG (Operation) Qazi Abdul Wahid said, adding that seven people were injured. The assailants escaped after the attack.

Law-enforcement personnel who rushed to the place took the injured to the Bolan Medical College and Civil Hospital. The injured were later shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH). Most of them had suffered multiple bullet wounds.

“It appears to be a sectarian attack,” another police officer said after initial investigation.

Those killed in the attack were identified as Zafar, Alam Khan, Ghulam Sakhi, Hafizullah and Bakhat Jamal.

Hundreds of people belonging to the Hazara tribe gathered on roads to protest against the attack.

They blocked the Brewery Road by erecting barricades and burning tyres.

Several vehicles were torched. The mob set a girls college on fire and attacked a number of government buildings.

Some people fired at police when they were trying to disperse the mob. Constable Khadim Hussain was injured and he later died in hospital.

Two people, Mubarak Shah and Nazir Hussain, were killed and six others injured when police fired back.

Heavy contingents of police and Frontier Corps were deployed at various places in and around the city after the incidents.

FAO OFFICIALS: Two officials of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Hafizullah and Mohammad Zahid, were killed and another was injured in an attack on their vehicle near Mastung bypass.

According to sources, they were coming to Quetta from Kalat when men on a motorcycle fired at them with automatic weapons.

Levies personnel took the bodies to the Mastung Civil Hospital and later handed them over to relatives. The injured man was brought to a hospital in Quetta.

Agencies add: A spokesman for the Taliban’s Jundullah faction claimed responsibility for the Quetta shooting.

Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulafiqar Ali Magsi and Chief Minister Aslam Khan Raisani condemned the killing.

In a statement issues here, the chief minister termed it a heinous act aimed at sabotaging peace of the province and said the government would take strict action against the elements involved in it.

The governor asked the inspector general of police to apprehend the attackers.