11 killed in suspected terror raid in Pakistan
Gunmen killed 11 people in southwest Pakistan, officials said on Saturday, with police searching for suspected separatist groups after migrant labourers were singled out for execution.
Police said six gunmen stopped a bus near the city of Naushki in Balochistan province around 8:00 pm on Friday and checked ID cards, abducting nine workers from the eastern region of Punjab.
Their bodies were later found two kilometres from the highway having been “fired upon at point blank range”, senior local police officer Allah Bakhsh said.
The same attackers later fired at a car belonging to a provincial parliamentarian, Bakhsh said. The lawmaker was not in the vehicle, but two people were killed when the car careened into a ditch.
Witness Tahir Hussain — who was travelling with the larger group of victims — said that “a group of gunmen blockaded the highway, forcing the bus to stop”.
“They asked which one of us were Punjabi,” the 50-yearold said. “Those who were accompanying families were spared.”
“They took the others with them at gunpoint,” he added. “After a while, we heard gunshots from a distance.”
Senior Naushki district administration official Habibullah Musakhail said that “police and paramilitary forces started combing the area for the arrest of the attackers”. “But the attackers have managed to flee the area this time,” he said, also confirming the death toll.
Groups have in the past targeted ethnic Punjabis and Sindhis from elsewhere in Pakistan, as well as foreign energy firms they believe are exploiting the region without sharing its riches.
Punjabis are the largest ethnic group in Pakistan, and are perceived to dominate the ranks of the military locked in a battle to quash Balochistan’s armed factions.
Witness Zahid Imran, 46, said that when gunmen boarded the bus they berated the abducted travellers, saying: “You Punjabis kill our children, get up and come with us.”