Gunmen kill 8 Pakistan bus passengers

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police are searching for gunmen who killed eight people after abducting them from a bus on a highway in the country’s southwest, a police official said Saturday.

Earlier, the same attackers killed two people and wounded six in another car they forced to stop.

According to the police official, the abduction took place on Friday in Baluchistan province, which has long been the scene of an insurgency by separatists fighting for independence.

Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Mosakhail said the gunmen set up a blockade, then stopped the bus and went through the passengers’ ID cards. They took eight people with them, all from the eastern Punjab province, fleeing into the mountains, he said.

Police later recovered eight bodies under a bridge about five kilometers (three miles) from the highway. Earlier on Friday, the same gunmen had opened fire at a vehicle that failed to stop for their blockade, killing two and wounding six.

A search for the perpetrators was underway, Mosakhail said. The bus was heading from the provincial capital of Quetta to Taftan, a town bordering Iran.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, expressing his “deep sorrow and regret over this shocking incident.” He offered his condolences to the families of the victims and said he stood by them in their hour of grief, according to a statement from his office.

“The perpetrators of this incident of terrorism and their facilitators will be punished,” Sharif said.

Abductions are rare in Baluchistan, where militants usually target police forces and soldiers or infrastructure.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killings. Police said there was no ransom demand and no indication of a motive for the attacks.

Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted.