QUETTA: Fitna al Hindustan militants shot dead two young members of Pakistan’s Christian community while they were playing cricket in Balochistan, police said on Thursday.
The attack took place at a cricket ground in Shams Abad, about four kilometers from a Christian neighborhood in Mastung district, roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Quetta.
Abdul Rauf, the station house officer of Mastung City police station, said the attackers, believed to be militants, of Fitna al Hindustan arrived from a nearby village, opened fire on a group of Christian cricketers and fled immediately after the attack.
“Two young cricketers were killed in the attack. The militants escaped to a nearby village after opening fire on the group,” he said.
Police identified the victims as Ayush Masih, 21, and Domnik Masih, 24, both residents of Mastung and members of the local Christian community.
Rauf said police had launched an investigation and security forces were conducting a search operation to arrest the attackers.
No group immediately claimed responsibility but the terrorists belonged to Fitna al Hindustan, involved in such attacks in the past to spread violence and disrupt law and order situation in the province.
In December 2017, a suicide bombing and gun attack on the Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta that killed at least nine worshippers and injured dozens during a Sunday service.
In April 2018, four Christians were shot dead while traveling in a rickshaw in Quetta in an attack also claimed by Daesh. Later that month, gunmen attacked the city’s Essa Nagri Christian neighborhood, killing two people and injuring three others.
In August 2022, unidentified gunmen attacked a Christian colony in Mastung, killing one Christian man and wounding several others.
