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Peshawar: Three Shiite Muslims were killed by gunmen in a drive-by shooting in Pakistan's northwest on Saturday, in what appeared to be a sectarian attack, officials said.
The assailants, riding on a motorbike, opened fire on Mazhar Zaidi and two of his friends in the town of Dera Ismail Khan as they sat in a shop, killing all the three on the spot.
"All the three victims are Shiites," said Abdul Ghafoor, head of the police station in the area.
He said they had lodged a complaint against activists of a banned Sunni Muslim militant group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, and were conducting raids to arrest them.
The majority of Pakistanis are Sunni Muslims, with Shiites accounting for around 15 percent of the 160 million population.
The latest killings came amid a resurgence of violence in the northwest after the collapse of peace talks with a key Taliban commander in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.
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