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At Least 11 Gunned Down In Pakistani Sectarian Attack
ISLAMABAD, March 4 (News Agencies) - Sunni gunmen Sunday opened fire on fellow Pakistani Shiites in eastern Pakistan, killing eleven people including two policemen in a new eruption of violence between the rival Muslim sects, news agencies reported.
Police told several news agencies that six gunmen in two groups opened fire at a Shiite shop and a gathering at a Shiite graveyard in Sheikhopura district, some 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) east of the Punjab provincial capital Lahore.
"They targeted Shiites and sprayed bullets all around before fleeing the scene," Lahore Police Deputy Inspector General Javed Noor told AFP, adding that seven Shiites had died and two other people were badly injured.
"They also killed two policemen who mounted a chase but we managed to arrest three suspects later on."
He said security had been tightened across Punjab and armed police contingents had been moved to guard the Iranian Cultural Center in Lahore. Armed Shiites quickly took to the streets following the attacks and threatened members of the Sunni community, police said.
"We have put up special pickets at all exit points and intensified police patrolling," Noor said.
Tanveer Shah, a spokesman for Shiite party, Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan (TJP), blamed police for failing to prevent the attack despite ample warning following recent threats from extremist Sunni groups.
"They are killing us all over Pakistan and the police and the government are just silent spectators," he said. Residents of Sheikhopura said tension was high after the killings and any tiny incident could spark bloody clashes.
"We will not sit quiet now waiting to be killed by the extremists. We have had enough of it," said provincial Shiite leader Sibtain Raza. "We have told the police that terrorists are hiding in and operating from Afghanistan but the government has failed to do anything."
Noor blamed members of Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi for carrying out the attacks in response to last week's execution of Sunni Haq Nawaz over the 1990 murder of an Iranian diplomat.
Pakistan has been rocked by sectarian unrest since Nawaz's hanging on Wednesday, the first execution of a Sunni extremist here despite years of sectarian violence. Nawaz was a member of the Sunni group Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, the parent organization of an officially declared terrorist outfit, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
Lashkar chief Riaz Basra has a bounty of five million rupees ($82,000) on his head in Pakistan. He had also been sentenced to death for his role in the killing of the Iranian diplomat, but escaped from custody and is now believed to be hiding in neighboring Afghanistan.
Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider last month visited Afghanistan for talks with the ruling Taliban Islamic militia but returned without making progress on Pakistani demands for the extradition of some 60 sectarian extremists.
"Unless we get these terrorists back it is a no-win situation for us," said provincial police chief Asif Hyat. Thirteen people, including several Shiites, were gunned down in the northeastern town of Hungu last week following Nawaz's execution.
Two others died in clashes between angry Sunnis and police in the Punjab city of Jhang ahead of his funeral there.
Some 3,000 people have died in sectarian violence between the majority Sunni and minority Shiite communities in the past decade.
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