Shia family shot dead in Pakistan

The attackers sprayed the word 'infidels' on the wall

Six members of a Shia Muslim family have been shot dead in Pakistan, in a suspected sectarian attack.

Two men, their wives, a 17-year-old maid and one of the men's year-old daughter were gunned down in the Mughalpura district of Lahore.

Lahore police chief Tariq Saleem Dogar said the victims were bound and gagged before they were killed.

There is a history of tension between extremist groups within the Shia and Sunni communities in Pakistan.

Friday's killings came a week after a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Karachi left 14 people dead.

No-one has so far claimed responsibility for the Lahore killings and no-one has been arrested.

"We will investigate all the options, including terrorism and sectarianism," Mr Saleem said.

The family ran a primary school for Shias and police said anti-Shia slogans were daubed across the walls of their home.

Most Pakistanis are Sunnis but there is a large Shia minority.

Sectarian killings in Pakistan have been a feature of the last two decades, with about 4,000 lives lost in the violence.

There was a lull in the violence shortly after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 but the killings began to rise again last year with Shias more often than not the victims.