AT LEAST 12 people were killed in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province today.

In what appeared to be a sectarian attack, gunmen on motorbikes machine-gunned a minivan carrying Hazara Shi’ites in provincial capital Quetta, killing six. The gunmen then chased down and killed another two as they fled the scene.

Protesting members of the Hazara community then blocked roads throughout the city in protest.

Police chief Aitzaz Goraya said no-one had claimed responsibility for the attack, though militant Sunni extremist groups Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Pakistani Taliban have boasted of murdering Shi’ites in the past.

A suicide bomb attack targeting pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman, also yesterday, suggested the terror tactics are spreading among rival militant groups.

Mr Rehman survived the attack, which killed two people and injured several more.

The final two casualties reported by Pakistani police were of two civilians who fell victim to a motorbike-bomb targeting an army patrol.