IS claims responsibility for deadly Karachi bus attack targetting minority group

The Islamic State group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for an attack by gunmen on a bus that killed at least 43 Shiites in Pakistan’s biggest city Karachi. Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a bus in the latest attack directed against religious minorities this year. Television channels carried pictures of a pink bus covered in bullet holes and lines of waiting ambulances. Police Superintendent Najib Khan said all the passengers were from the Ismaili community, a minority Shi'ite Muslim sect in majority-Sunni Pakistan. Earlier in the day, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban called Jundullah claimed responsibility.

These killed people were Ismaili and we consider them kafir (non-Muslim). We had four attackers. In the coming days we will attack Ismailis, Shi'ites and Christians.

Ahmed Marwat, spokesman for Jundullah

Ayesha Aly, a member of the Ismaili community, wept on television as she explained that the bus picked up people for work and dropped them off every day. “People were just getting on with their normal lives, out to earn a living,” she said. Taliban splinter groups have bombed several mosques belonging to religious minorities this year. Many religious minorities blame the government for not doing enough to protect them.

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