Sunni suspect arrested over police cadet killings

Police have rounded up 11 suspected Islamic militants in connection with a machine-gun attack on a group of young police cadets in Quetta, officials said today.

The police recruits – all members of Pakistan’s Shiite Muslim minority – were in a pick-up truck when two gunmen on motorcycles opened fire yesterday. Twelve recruits were killed and eight injured in the attack.

Shoaib Suddle, Quetta’s police chief, said authorities fanned out after the attack, arresting 11 men with suspected ties to Sunni militant groups. It was not clear what evidence police had linking the men to the killings.

It was the third attack targeting Shiites in Quetta in little over a week, and all were carried out in similar fashion. On Friday, motorcycle gunmen in Quetta shot dead a Shiite Muslim prayer leader as he drove home.

And on May 31, two gunmen riding motorcycles ambushed a car carrying Ghulam Nabi, a prominent local Shiite, wounding him and killing his son.

Suddle said at least 20 additional suspects had already been arrested in connection with the previous killings.

Most of Pakistan’s majority Sunnis live peacefully with their Shiite brethren, but small extremist groups from both sects have been blamed for attacking each other in sectarian violence that has plagued the country for decades.