QUETTA, June 3: A workshop in the Sirki road area of the city was attacked by four men who killed its owner and his son and two other people on Sunday.

A policeman was killed when he and his colleague who were on patrol in the area were also attacked when they rushed to the place.

City police chief Mir Zubair Mehmood said two of the attackers were injured in police firing but they were taken away by their accomplices.

According to him, the gunmen came on two motorbikes and opened fire on people who were in the workshop and killed four of them.

A passerby was injured and died in the hospital.

Police took the injured to the civil hospital where a policeman died.

The condition of the other injured policeman was said to be serious.

Sources said that the four people who were killed were having lunch in the workshop when they came under attack. Two of them tried to run away but they were chased and killed.

Police identified the victims as Haji Mohammad Nabi, his son Mohammad Hasan, Mohammad Tariq, Naqibullah, Abdul Manan and Hayatullah.

Four of them were Afghan refugees from Kandahar.

After the attack, police raided several areas to look for the attackers and detained some suspects.

Amanullah Kasi adds: The Hazara Democratic Party condemned the attack and said police had failed to arrest the killers. The HDP said in a statement that police claimed that two perpetrators were injured but the question was how the two other took them away from the busy street.

The HDP said that police were duty bound to protect people and arrest criminals, but they did not appear to be interested in doing their job.