QUETTA: An inspector of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), a TV artiste and another government official were gunned down near Mecongi Road on Wednesday evening, police said.

The three were going home in a car when assailants on a motorcycle opened fire on them with automatic weapons in a street.“All of them died on the spot,” hospital sources said.

Police said it appeared to be a case of targeted sectarian killings because the victims — FIA Inspector Walayat Hussain, Quetta television artiste Abid Hussain Nazish and Mohammad Anwar Hussain, an accounts officer at the Balochistan AccountantGeneral’s office — belonged to the Hazara tribe.

“We are also looking into other aspects of the investigation,” Quetta city police chief Ahsan Mehboob said. He said police were checking vehicles and carrying out raids in different areas to arrest the attackers.

The bodies were taken to the Civil Hospital and handed over to the victims’ families after post-mortems.

In a statement, the Shia Conference Balochistan condemned the killing and said provincial authorities had failed to protect citizens and urged the federal government to ensure an immediate arrest of killers.