Peshawar, Pakistan - Seven people were killed on Saturday after gunmen fired on a coach carrying passengers in a Pakistan's northwestern tribal district, officials said.
The attack took place near Boshehra town in Kurram tribal district where the military last week launched an offensive and which is often troubled by sectarian violence.
“Seven people, four men and three women were killed in the attack, all of them were Sunni Muslims,” Sher Bahadar, a local administrative official said.
A local intelligence official said it was a sectarian incident in an area with a history of clashes between majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shia’s.
“Three people were also wounded in the attack. The attackers managed to flee the scene,” Bahadar said.
The victims were close relatives, he added.
Shiites account for some 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 160 million.
More than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence between the groups since the late 1980s.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said last week that the recent military operation would clear the area “of terrorists involved in all kinds of terrorist activities, including kidnapping and killing of locals, and suicide attacks”.
Pakistan's seven tribal districts bordering Afghanistan are rife with a homegrown insurgency, and are also strongholds of the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda. Washington has described them as the most dangerous place on Earth. - Sapa-AFP