DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for killing a Chinese woman in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Taliban spokesman Mohammad Afridi said on Thursday the woman was targeted to avenge what he said were atrocities carried out by Chinese security forces in the heavily Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang.

Peshawar police chief Imtiaz Altaf says that militants may have been behind the Tuesday shooting, but that no conclusions had been reached yet.

Gunmen killed the woman in a bazaar in Peshawar along with a local man accompanying her.

Peshawar is a hub of extremist activity and militant attacks there are common.