Assailants ambushed four passenger buses in northwest Pakistan,
pulled out Shiite males and killed 18 of them Tuesday, police said.
Pakistani officials swiftly condemned the attack, with President Asif Ali Zardari saying the "culprits of such a heinous crime will not be spared."
The attack took place in the mountainous Kohistan district in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, senior police official Muhammad Ilyas said.
The interior minister, Rehman Malik, immediately formed a team to investigate the incident and promised a report within three days, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
The buses were carrying passengers from Rawalpindi to the city of Gilgit in northwest Pakistan, Ilyas said.
Assailants stopped the buses early Tuesday morning and ordered the passengers out, he said.
They then singled out the male Shiite passengers, lined them up and shot them, Ilyas said.
Eight others were injured in the attack, but Sunni passengers were unharmed, he said.
Even though the area is not known for militant activity, Pakistan -- a majority Sunni Muslim nation -- has a long history of sectarian violence.
In a similar attack in October, gunmen boarded a passenger bus and opened fire, killing 14 in Balochistan province.
Shiite processions on religious holidays are also regularly targeted by Sunni militants. In January, 14 people were killed and 20 injured in a bomb blast in the town of Khan Pur.
Pakistani officials swiftly condemned the attack, with President Asif Ali Zardari saying the "culprits of such a heinous crime will not be spared."
The attack took place in the mountainous Kohistan district in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, senior police official Muhammad Ilyas said.
The interior minister, Rehman Malik, immediately formed a team to investigate the incident and promised a report within three days, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
The buses were carrying passengers from Rawalpindi to the city of Gilgit in northwest Pakistan, Ilyas said.
Assailants stopped the buses early Tuesday morning and ordered the passengers out, he said.
They then singled out the male Shiite passengers, lined them up and shot them, Ilyas said.
Eight others were injured in the attack, but Sunni passengers were unharmed, he said.
Even though the area is not known for militant activity, Pakistan -- a majority Sunni Muslim nation -- has a long history of sectarian violence.
In a similar attack in October, gunmen boarded a passenger bus and opened fire, killing 14 in Balochistan province.
Shiite processions on religious holidays are also regularly targeted by Sunni militants. In January, 14 people were killed and 20 injured in a bomb blast in the town of Khan Pur.
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