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Four people, including three Hazara men, were shot dead and three others wounded in separate incidents of firing in the provincial capital on Thursday.According to police, three people were sitting at a roadside stall on Shahr-i-Iqbal when armed motorcyclists fired shots at them, killing one of them on the spot and wounding another two critically. The deceased was identified as Sakhi Dad, a member of the Hazara community.The injured were shifted to Provincial Sandeman Hospital from where they were referred to the Combined Military Hospital.

Following Supreme Court’s strict orders, the police on Tuesday recovered three remaining persons, out of seven, who had gone missing on March 1.Earlier, Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, while hearing a petition regarding the deteriorating law and order and human rights situation in Balochistan, had directed the IG of Police and other officers to recover the seven missing persons who had been picked up from the Sariab area of Quetta on March 1, 2012.

Six people of Hazara community, who were shot dead on Monday, were buried in their ancestral graveyards on Tuesday.

The funeral prayers of four victims were offered in Hazara graveyard in Eastern-Bypass and two in a graveyard near Alamdar Road. Score of religious scholars and leaders of the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) participated in the funeral prayers.

A leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) was killed in a firing incident on Saryab Road in Quetta on Friday.

The provincial leader, identified as Maulana Muhammad Qasim, was also the Khateeb of Jamia Masjid Noorani. It had earlier been reported that Qasim was the provincial chief. He was on his was to lead Friday prayers when he was targeted by unidentified assailants on motorbikes.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry would hear three important cases at the Supreme Court’s Quetta registry today (Thursday).

Among the cases to be heard is also the petition on Balochistan law and order situation and target killing filed by Balochistan High Court Bar Association President Hadi Shakeel Ahmed.

Two persons were shot dead by unknown assailants on Macangi road in Quetta on Monday.

According to sources, unknown assailants armed with sophisticated weapons barged into a medical and a shoe store on Mecangi road and opened fire at the people present there. The victims received fatal gun shot wounds in the head and chest, and died on the spot. The assailants managed to escape on a motorbike after committing the crime.

Two people were shot dead on Tuesday by unidentified assailants in what appeared to be an incident of sectarian violence. Sources said the attackers, armed with sophisticated weapons, barged into a medical store and shoe shop on Mecangi Road and opened fire. The two victims – Akbar Ali and Ali Raza – received bullets and died instantly. The assailants fled on a motorbike. The bodies were moved to Sandeman Hospital for autopsy. Akbar Ali and Ali Raza were residents of Alamdar Road, an area dominated by the Hazara community. Relatives said the two victims belonged to Gilgit-Baltistan.

A complete shutter down strike was observed in the provincial capital on Friday to condemn Thursday’s target killings and denounce the deteriorating law and order situation in the province.

The call for the shutter down strike was given by the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) and Pashtoonkhawa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and was endorsed by nearly all politico-nationalist groups, including ANP, BNP, JWP and Anjuman Tajiran Balochistan. There was no or very little trade and business activities in Quetta. All major business centres and markets at Shahra-e-Iqbal, Jinnah Road, Liaquat Bazaar, Prince Road, Abdul Sattar Road, Masjid Road, Alamdar Road and Hazara Town remained closed, while there was thin traffic on the city streets.

At least 8 were killed here in violence on Thursday. Five Hazaras were killed when a van carrying them was ambushed on Spini road in Quetta Thursday morning. Law enforcement agencies and the police put security on high alert in the city after the incident.

According to a senior police official, the van was on its way to Marriabad from Hazara Town when a group of armed men opened indiscriminate fire near Killi Mubarak.

In a fresh wave of target killings, six people were killed on Thursday morning after unidentified gunmen ambushed their vehicle on the Spini Road, triggering a wave of violent protests across the provincial capital which claimed another two lives.

According to police reports, over a dozen people belonging to the Hazara community were on their way from the Hazara Town to Quetta when their vehicle was attacked by unidentified armed men. According to eyewitness accounts, the van’s assailants sprayed the passengers with bullets from lethal automatic weapons. A total of 10 people were critically injured, six of them succumbing to their wounds on their way to the Bolan Medical Complex Hospital.