By Staff Reporter
QUETTA: The bodies of nine bus passengers kidnapped and killed in Balochistan’s Sardhaka area were recovered and transported to their hometowns in Punjab on Friday morning, officials said, marking the latest in a series of deadly attacks targeting civilians on their provincial identity in Pakistan’s restive southwest.
The victims were among 10 passengers abducted at gunpoint from two Punjab-bound coaches late Thursday night by unidentified armed men in the Sur-Dakai area, near the border of Balochistan’s Zhob and Loralai districts. The Balochistan Liberation Front, a banned separatist group, claimed responsibility, escalating tensions in a region long plagued by violence.
The attack unfolded near the N-70 highway, close to Dab on the Loralai-Zhob border, where armed assailants blocked the road and intercepted the two coaches. Officials said the gunmen boarded the vehicles, checked passengers’ national identity cards, and singled out individuals with Punjab addresses.
Ten passengers, seven from one coach and three from the other, were forced off at gunpoint and taken to an unknown location. “I heard gunfire as we were leaving,” a surviving passenger told Levies forces, recounting the chaos as the attackers fired on the coaches to prevent escapes. After abducting their targets, the assailants allowed the buses to depart.
Provincial government spokesperson Shahid Rind confirmed that the assault was one of three coordinated attacks by “Fitna-al-Hindustan” that night, with others occurring in Kakat and Mastung. The Balochistan Liberation Front later issued a statement claiming it had killed the nine passengers after blocking the highway between Musakhail-Makhtar and Khajuri. Security forces suspended traffic on the N-70 and launched a large-scale search operation, though the perpetrators remained at large as of Friday evening.
Assistant Commissioner Naveed Alam oversaw the recovery of the nine bodies, which were handed over to a political agent in the Sakhi Sarwar district of Dera Ghazi Khan for transport to Punjab. Seven victims were identified, two from Lodhran, and one each from Dera Ghazi Khan, Gujrat, Attock, Khanewal, and Gujranwala, while two remained nameless due to missing documents. “The terrorists must have taken the passengers’ identification documents with them,” Alam said.
Among the survivors, Sabir Toor shared a wrenching account with Geo News. He and 10 family members were traveling from Quetta to Lodhran for their father’s funeral when the gunmen struck. “They offloaded my two brothers, Usman and Jabir, from the bus in front of women and children of the family and killed them,” Toor said. “I cannot describe this hour of grief, we have three funerals in the family now.” Having worked in Quetta for 30 years with no political ties, he pleaded, “I urge security forces to get rid of these miscreants.”
Pakistan’s top leaders swiftly condemned the attack, vowing retribution against those they accuse of destabilizing the country.
President Asif Ali Zardari called it part of “Fitna-al-Hindustan’s evil conspiracy to spill blood in Pakistan,” a term the government uses to describe terrorist organisations in Balochistan linked to arch-rival India, according to state-run Radio Pakistan. President reaffirmed his commitment to “clear the land of Fitna-al-Hindustan and its facilitators at all costs.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called the killings “a blatant act of terrorism” and vowed to “confront the scourge of terrorism and uproot it completely” with “resolve, unity, and strength.” “The blood of innocent people will be avenged.”
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti labeled the killings “blatant terrorism” and warned that “Balochistan will become a graveyard for enemies.” “The killing of innocent civilians based on Pakistani identity is an unforgivable crime,” he said, promising a “severe” response. “The terrorists have proven that they are not human beings, but cowardly beasts,” he added, vowing that the state “would not even let these murderers hide underground.”
The attack fits a grim pattern of violence targeting Punjabis in Balochistan, where separatist groups like the Balochistan Liberation Front accuse the central government of exploiting the province’s resources while neglecting its people. In April 2024, nine were killed near Noshki after being forced off a bus, and two Punjab laborers were shot in Kech. In February, seven Punjab-bound passengers were executed in Barkhan district, days after a blast killed 12 coal miners in Harnai. Last year saw seven barbers from Punjab gunned down near Gwadar in May, and 23 travelers killed in Musakhail in August.
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