Three killed in militant attack on Pak Sufi shrine

The militants attacked the shrine of Ghazi Baba at Badabher on the outskirts of Peshawar and fired at four custodians, witnesses said. Three of the custodians died instantly, state-run PTV reported. The fourth one was also injured in the attack. The attackers fled after the incident.

Police said a search operation had been launched to apprehend the attackers and added that the motive behind the incident was unclear. Local residents said the shrine's custodians had received threats from unidentified men.

The Taliban recently carried out a series of suicide and bomb attacks on Sufi shrines across Pakistan, killing scores of people.

The Taliban consider visiting shrines of saints as "un-Islamic."

In a separate incident, three persons, including a woman, were injured when a police van was targeted with a remote-controlled improvised explosive device in Nagman area of Peshawar this morning, police said.

The bomb was planted near a gas pipeline and went off as the van was passing through the area.