Karachi Attack Kills Over 40 on Bus Carrying Members of Shiite Sect

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/world/asia/karachi-bus-attack-kills-members-of-ismaili-sect.html

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KARACHI, Pakistan — At least 43 people were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus in the Pakistani port city of Karachi early Wednesday, police officials said. The gunmen escaped.

The passengers were members of the Ismaili sect of Shiite Islam, and the bus made daily commutes from an Ismaili residential complex to other parts of Karachi. Sixteen women were among the dead, the police said.

Jundullah, a Taliban splinter group, claimed responsibility for the attack. Although specific attacks on Ismailis, seen as an educated and affluent group, have been relatively rare, minority sects have been targeted with greater frequency in recent years by the Taliban and other extremist Sunni groups. The attackers are almost never brought to justice.

At least six men, riding motorcycles, conducted the attack on Wednesday, said Ghulam Haider Jamali, the police chief of Sindh Province, of which Karachi is the capital. Some of the attackers boarded the bus and opened fire on the passengers, most of whom were shot in the head and chest, Chief Jamali said.

Officials said that the bus was designed to carry 50 passengers but that at least 60 were aboard Wednesday morning, with some of the survivors severely wounded.

The police and members of a paramilitary force were searching nearby residential neighborhoods for suspects, but no arrests had been made, officials said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Mamnoon Hussain strongly condemned the attack. The chief minister of Sindh Province, Qaim Ali Shah, suspended two police officers in charge of security for the neighborhood where the attack occurred.