Karachi: A man was killed and four others were injured when a mob went on the rampage in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday over the alleged desecration of a Quran.
The man was killed in firing by unidentified men at Liaquat Bazar during protests by activists linked to a banned Sunni extremist group, reports said.
Two of the injured were in a serious condition, officials told the media.
The Balochistan government deployed additional police and paramilitary forces in the provincial capital to avert further violence.
The violence erupted when some persons claimed they had found torn pages of the Quran in a crate containing fruits that was part of a shipment from neighbouring Iran, a Shia- majority country.
The mob destroyed several shops and tried to march towards a Shia-dominated neighbourhood before protesters were stopped by police.
Quetta has witnessed several devastating attacks on the minority Hazara Shia community that have killed hundreds. The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for most of these attacks.
Recent sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis, which erupted during the Islamic holy month of Muharram, killed at least a dozen people in Rawalpindi and other cities.
