By Staff Reporter
QUETTA: Seven labourers were killed and one injured when armed men stormed an under-construction house in Panjgur town of the southwestern province of Balochistan, late Saturday, police said.
The construction labourers, all from Multan, a city in south Punjab, were sleeping in the same room in Khuda-i-Abadan area when armed men opened indiscriminate fire with automatic weapons.
“Seven labourers were killed on the spot and another was injured in the firing,” Inspector General Police Moazzam Jah Ansari told reporters.
Hospital officials said the bodies were kept in the district hospital Panjgur. “All the victims sustained multiple gunshot wounds that resulted in their death.” The injured man, who also sustained bullet wounds, was hospitalized.
Panjgur SSP Fazil Shah Bokhari said it was a terrorist attack. “All the labourers who lost their lives in the firing belong to the Shujabad area of Multan district, and Abu Bakr (name) brought them to Panjgur for the construction of his house,” Bokhari said. “It is a terrorist attack.”
The victims were identified as Sajid, Shafiq, Fayyaz, Iftikhar, Salman, Khalid, and Allah Wasia.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and sought a report from Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti, reiterating the government’s resolve to root out terrorism. President Asif Zardari also denounced the attack.
A fresh wave of violence has erupted in Balochistan, where young ethnic Baloch are leading protests against alleged enforced disappearances and human rights abuses by security forces, who reject the accusations.
Last month, dozens of militants affiliated with the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) launched numerous attacks across Balochistan, targeting security personnel and civilians, particularly those from Punjab. They went on a rampage across the province, storming police stations, blowing up railway tracks, and setting fire to almost three dozen vehicles.
They killed 23 passengers, all of them from central Punjab province, after being offloaded from buses and trucks in the Rarasham area of Balochistan’s Musakhail.
Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistan’s poorest province, despite an abundance of untapped natural resources, and lags behind the rest of the country in education, employment and economic development. The province is also home to major China-led projects such as a deep-water port and a gold and copper mine.
The government has ruled out talks with separatist militants and maintained that there would be no dialogue with “terrorists and enemies of peace”.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
