By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Nine passengers from Punjab province were killed by unidentified gunmen after being abducted from a bus traveling from Quetta to Taftan, a senior police official said on Saturday.
The incident took place on Friday night near the Nushki district of southwestern Balochistan province, a region troubled by a separatist insurgency.
Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Musakhel said the gunmen, numbering between 10-12, stopped the bus on the Quetta-Taftan Highway N-40 near Sultan Charhai.
“After checking the passengers’ ID cards, they took nine individuals to the nearby mountains and executed them at close range,” Musakhel said. “Police and law enforcement agencies pursued the terrorists who fired RPG [rocket-propelled grenades] on security forces and escaped. Efforts to apprehend them are ongoing.”
The victims’ bodies were later found under a bridge, with their identities confirmed through documents indicating they were from Wazirabad, Mandi Bahauddin, and Gujranwala. The bodies have been moved to Quetta.
No group has claimed the attack, but it occurs against a backdrop of longstanding grievances by Baloch nationalists over the alleged exploitation of the province’s resources by the government and Punjab province. The government has consistently denied these allegations, pointing to development projects in Balochistan.
Baloch separatists have also targeted Punjabi laborers working in the province in the past. At least 10 of them had been killed in Balochistan’s Turbat district during two separate attacks last year in October.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a key separatist faction, has increased its attacks since the general elections on February 8, targeting strategic locations in Gwadar and Kech districts.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the brutal attack and has sought a comprehensive report on the incident. He extended his condolences to the victims’ families and assured that the government stands with them in their time of loss. Sharif also promised that the perpetrators and their accomplices would be brought to justice.
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