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Journalism of Courage
Suspected Sunni extremists shot to death 13 Shia Muslims execution-style after ordering them off a bus and lining them up Tuesday in Quetta,ramping up a campaign of sectarian violence that has exposed Islamabads inability to protect minorities.
Sunni militants with links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings across the country against minority Shias in recent years.
The gunmen who attacked Tuesday were riding on motorbikes and stopped a bus carrying mostly Shia Muslims who were headed to work at a vegetable market on the outskirts of Quetta,said police official Hamid Shakeel.
The attackers forced the people off the bus,made them stand in a line and then opened fire,he said.
The dead included 13 Shias and one Sunni,he said.
Shias blocked the main highway on the outskirts of Quetta to protest the killings. They also set fire to the bus that had taken the dead and wounded to the hospital.
Sunni extremists carried out a similar attack on Shia pilgrims travelling through Baluchistan via bus about two weeks ago,killing 26 people.
