Gunmen on motorbikes massacred 44 and wounded at least 20 members of a minority Muslim sect aboard a bus in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, on Wednesday. Officials believed the killing to be an act of terrorism, reported NBC News.

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Police said there were six attackers responsible for the Pakistan massacre. They used 9 mm pistols to shoot and kill the people aboard the bus. Well prepared for the attack, the gunmen shot most of the victims in the head, according to Pir Muhammad Shah, senior superintendent of police for East Karachi. 

"Targeting a peaceful community shows the evil intent of the attackers," said Qaim Al Shah, chief minister of Sindh province where the Pakistan massacre took place.

Al Shah promised to "not back down and get" the perpetrators responsible for the attack.

After the massacre, the bus carrying the victims was driven into a hospital parking lot, which was seen riddled with bullet holes on its side. Salma Wahid of the Memon Medical Institute Hospital in Karachi said that most of the victims were found unconscious and splattered with blood.

The bus had carried men, women, and children from the Ismaili Muslim community, according to Ahmed Chinoy, chairman of the Citizen Police Liaison Committee in Karachi.

Shiites are reportedly the regular victims of sectarian attacks in a Sunni-majority Pakistan. This year, Sunni Muslim extremists have carried out a host of attacks on minority Muslims and Christians in the region.

The Pakistan massacre is the latest attack that targeted the religious minority, according to the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Jundallah, a violent extremist group targeting Pakistan's Shiite Muslim minority, claimed responsibility for the latest attack through a spokesman, Ahmad Marwat. He said four people from the group's members did the attack.

"We will continue such attacks," he warned, adding that Pakistan's Shiites and the Ahmadi religious minority are their "main targets."

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