Gunmen opened fire on a passenger van, killing ten passengers and a passer-by in an apparent sectarian attack in southwestern Pakistan.

Gunmen opened fire on a passenger van, killing ten passengers and a passer-by in an apparent sectarian attack in southwestern Pakistan.

The shooting took place on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas-rich Baluchistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
"Gunmen opened fire on a passenger van carrying Shiite Muslims. Ten Shiites and a passer-by were killed and four injured in the attack," senior police officer Jamil Ahmad Kakar told AFP news agency by telephone.

Kakar said the unidentified gunmen stood by the roadside spraying bullets at the van before they fled the scene in a waiting car.
"One woman was among the dead while another was injured in the attack," he added.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Baluchistan is rife with sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims, as well as Islamist militancy and an insurgency waged by separatists.