QUETTA: Gunmen killed four male members of a family belonging to a minority Shiite community in Pakistan's Balochistan province, police said, in the latest bout of sectarian violence to rock the restive region, reports AFP.

The attack took place late Sunday in the Kuchlak area on the highway between the provincial capital Quetta and the border town of Chaman.

The victims, including a 13-year-old boy, were travelling in a taxi from Afghanistan to Quetta when four gunmen riding motorcycles opened fire on them, local police official Amin Jaffar said late Sunday.

"Two men died on the spot, one on the way to hospital and one passed away in hospital," he said, adding the gunmen appeared to spare the two women in the vehicle.

"The preliminary investigation shows that it was sectarian-based targeted killings as the family belongs to the Hazara community and was coming from Afghanistan," said Amjad Ali Khan, a police commissioner from Quetta.