Gunmen Kill 3 Shia In Volatile Pakistani Province

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Officials say gunmen have shot dead three Shi'ite Muslims and wounded two others in Pakistan's troubled southwestern province of Balochistan. Officials said the shooting took place on November 12 in the town of Mach, some 70 kilometers southeast of the provincial capital, Quetta. Local police officer Sher Ahmed said the three men from the Shi'ite Hazara community were killed and two others were wounded when gunmen on a motorbike sprayed bullets at two vegetable shops. Balochistan is rife with Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between majority Sunnis and minority Shi'ite Muslims, and a regional insurgency waged by ethnic Balochi separatists. In September, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said more than 100 Shi'ites had been killed in sectarian attacks in Balochistan this year. Islamabad Accuses Kabul Of Killing Civilians The Pakistani government has accused Afghan forces of killing at least four civilians in a cross-border shelling attack. Islamabad says the civilians were killed on November 11 when mortars exploded outside a house in the border village of Neiznarai in the South Waziristan tribal area along Afghanistan’s southeastern border. Pakistani Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani condemned the cross-border attack in a conversation with the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Mohammad Umar Daudzai. According to a statement from the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, Jilani called the attacks "unhelpful and unproductive." The alleged attack came just as a senior Afghan official visited Islamabad to discuss peace talks with the Taliban. Pakistan is seen as critical to reaching a peace deal with the Taliban because of its historical ties to the group.