QUETTA: Five people were killed and two others injured when gunmen opened fire on two shops in Usman Road area on Wednesday.

Sources said gunmen on two motorcycles sprayed the shops of a barber and a dry-cleaner with bullets, killing two people and injuring five others. Three of the wounded died in hospital.

Four of the victims were sitting in the shops located on Chaman Street and others were passers-by, they said.

Frontier Corps personnel and rescue workers took the bodies and the injured to the Civil Hospital where the condition of the injured was said to be critical.

The deceased were identified as Mohammad Irfan, Khalid Bilal, Naveed Qureshi, Shakirullah and a man from the Hindu community, Sunil.

The injured were identified as Ghulam Yasin Jam and Ghayyoor Dotani.

A case was registered against unidentified attackers and a police official said it appeared to be an incident of targeted killing.

Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch asked police authorities to ensure an early arrest of killers and submit a report about the incident.

Quetta police chief Abdul Razzak Cheema suspended the SHO of Gawalmandi police station, Inspector Nasir-ul-Hassan, and wrote a letter to DSP Syed Tanvir Shah, seeking explanation about police failure to prevent the incident.

Meanwhile, in a late-night telephone call to a local news agency, spokesman for the banned Baloch Liberation Army, Meerak Baloch, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Published in Dawn, November 13th , 2014