Seven labourers killed by separatist militants in Pakistan's restive Balochistan

Islamabad/Karachi: At least seven labourers from Punjab province were shot dead by separatist militants in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, police said on Sunday.

Separately, armed men abducted at least 20 labourers of a gas company from a construction site near a highway in the Musakhail district of the province on Sunday, officials said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killings or kidnapping of labourers.

In the first incident, armed men stormed an under-construction house and opened fire on labourers when they were asleep, killing seven of them in the Khuda-e-Abadan area of Panjgur town on Saturday night, Balochistan Inspector General of Police Moazzam Jah Ansari said.

Ansari said the labourers were in deep sleep when the armed terrorists entered the house and opened indiscriminate fire with automatic weapons.

The official said one of the labourers luckily escaped with an injury while another was not present at the time of the shooting.

The official said an investigation has been launched into the incident.

“This latest attack appears to be the work of the Balochistan Liberation Army as it has all their footprints on it,” another security official said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who immediately condemned the attack, sought a report from Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti and reiterated the government’s resolve to take all possible measures to root out terrorism from the motherland.

President Asif Ali Zardari also condemned the attack.

In another incident, armed men abducted at least 20 labourers of a gas company from a construction site near a highway in the Musakhail district of the Balochistan province on Sunday.

The Express Tribune newspaper reported that armed men raided a gas company’s site in the district and abducted 20 labourers. Police or security officials have not commented on the incident so far.

The report said the armed men opened fire after rounding up the workers and abducting 20 of them before fleeing into the mountainous region near the highway.

On Saturday, a senior leader of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), Agha Khalid Shah, was shot dead and his cousin was injured by unidentified men in Quetta.

This is not the first time banned separatist groups have targeted labourers or civilians from other provinces.

In May, the banned Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for killing seven barbers in Gwadar.

In April, militants shot dead in cold blood nine people travelling in a bus in Noshki on the main highway.

Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is home to a long-running violent insurgency. Baloch insurgent groups have previously carried out several attacks targeting the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects.