Gunman kills four in Pakistan

A gunman Thursday shot dead four Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's insurgency-torn southwestern province of Baluchistan, police said.

The shooting took place in the southwestern city of Quetta, the capital of oil- and gas-rich Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

"The four Shiites had just closed their shop and left for home when an unknown gunman opened fire on their car and ran away," killing two people on the spot, senior local police official Hamid Shakeel told AFP.

He said the other two people died of their injuries on the way to hospital.

No one had claimed responsibility for the attack, Shakeel added.

A second police official, Shaukat Ali, confirmed the incident.

Baluchistan is rife with Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between majority Sunnis and minority Shiite Muslims and a regional insurgency waged by separatists.

Baluch rebels rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's wealth of natural resources. Hundreds of people have since died.