ISIS claims responsibility for killing Christian family in Pakistan
The extremist Islamist group ISIS claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the killing of four members of a Christian family in southwestern Pakistan.
The group's statement said that armed men affiliated with ISIS attacked Christians traveling in rickshaws to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, on Monday, killing four of them.
The family had come to visit relatives in the Shahzaman area of Quetta, an area with a significant Christian community. According to Moazzam Jah Ansari, a Quetta police official, it appears that the family was deliberately targeted and that the attack was a terrorist attack.
The shooting of the family took place a day after Pakistani Christians celebrated Easter.
About 2 percent of Pakistan's population of 200 million are Christians.
Holding celebrations for religious minorities in this country, the majority of which are Sunni Muslims, is always associated with security concerns, and there have been frequent attacks against Christians or Shiites in this country.
Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, is considered one of the most insecure regions of Pakistan and has been plagued by violence from extremist groups linked to the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS for years.
ISIS has members in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and many extremist militants from these two countries support ISIS's fanatical views against Shiite Muslims and non-Muslims and cooperate with ISIS.
Source: euronews
