QUETTA: Four labourers, engaged in the construction of a road to connect Kharan, a remote area of Balochistan, with the Quetta-Taftan highway, were shot dead on Wednesday.

Official sources said that the attack took place in Shiktaak, 5km away from Kharan town, where armed men opened fire on the labourers, who died on the spot.

The victims were identified as Ghulam Mustafa, Niazi, Sohrab Khan and Sajan — who belonged to the Ghotki area of Sindh.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

Victims’ bodies being sent to Ghotki

Talking to Dawn over the phone from Kharan, a senior administration official said that the attack was apparently carried out by militants.

The National Highway Authority is constructing the dual carriageway at a cost of Rs12 billion to link Kharan and Washuk, two remote districts of Balochistan, with the RCD Highway via the Dalbandin area.

Personnel of law enforcement agencies shifted the bodies to the district hospital in Kharan. “The workers had received multiple bullet wounds causing their instant death,” said Dr Mehboob, the medical superintendent of the hospital.

Levies Force officials said that automatic weapons were used in the attack.

Security forces launched an operation in the area to trace the attackers and took some suspects into custody for interrogation.

The bodies of the victims were handed over to the local administration for sending them to their native areas after completing medico-legal formalities.

Sources said that security personnel were not present at the place when the gun attack took place. “No security arrangement had been made in the area,” they said.

Earlier, many such incidents had taken place in different areas of Makran in which labourers working on road and other development projects had been attacked by militants.

Levies Force officials are conducting an investigation into the incident.

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri condemned the killings and described them as a conspiracy mounted by anti-state elements averse to the development and prosperity of the province. He instructed the provincial home department and police to provide maximum security to labourers and other people engaged in carrying out development work.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2017