Police in Pakistan have arrested at least 17 suspects in relation to a bus shooting that left 10 people dead and 25 others wounded, authorities said on December 4.
Security forces raided several areas in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region -- where the attack took place on December 2 -- and made the arrests, the local police chief said.
The bus was carrying passengers from Gilgit to the city of Rawalpindi when it was shot at, causing the driver to lose control and crash into a truck, which in turn caught fire.
While no group has claimed responsibility for the late-evening attack, the injury to the cleric led Interior Minister Shamsul Lone to suggest on December 3 that the aim was "to breed religious hatred."
Lone said the militants fired on the two vehicles from nearby hills as they traveled on the Karokoram Highway to the Punjab Province city of Rawalpindi. The highway, which connects Pakistan to China and also passes through the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Security forces were accompanying the passenger bus due to recent tensions between local Sunnis and Shi'a, Lone said.
Interim Prime Minister Anwar ul-Haq Kakar said in a statement that "anti-state elements would not be allowed to sabotage the peace of Gilgit-Baltistan," and vowed to continue fighting "against terrorists."
Authorities in Gigit-Baltistan said that a special investigative team has been formed to look into the attack.
Muhammad Khorasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan and active in the region, denied any link with the shooting.
Local and central government officials have requested that religious scholars work to lessen Sunni-Shi'a tensions that have risen since summer after scholars on both sides accused each other of insulting their respective branches of Islam.
In September, a joint committee of Shi'ite and Sunni leaders was formed with the aim of preventing conflicts.
Following the December 2 attack, the committee condemned the violence and called on people to remain calm.
Gilgit-Baltistan lies along China's One Ring One Road initiative and is the sight of a dam project being built with the help of Beijing.
Interior Minister Lone said there was a possibility the attack was carried out in an effort to scare investors.