GWADAR / QUETTA: Seven labourers hailing from Punjab were killed in the coastal town of Sarba­ndan, around 25km east of Gwadar on Thursday, according to officials.

The victims, who worked in local barber shops, were sleeping in a rented residential quarter when unknown assailants barged into the place at around 3am and opened fire, Mohsin Ali, a senior police officer, told Dawn over the telephone.

He added that eight men were living in the quarter, of whom seven died on the spot. The eighth man was injured after being shot in the legs.

A heavy contingent of police and rescue officials arrived at the scene and moved the dead and the injured to the Gwadar district hospital.

The deceased were identified as Mohammad Sajid, Adnan Ahmed, Haseebullah Qureshi, Asadullah Qureshi, Ansar, Shan and Muqarab.

The injured, identified as Mohammad Arsalan Qureshi, has been moved to Karachi for further treatment.

Gwadar SSP Zohaib Mohsin said victims belonged to different cities of south Punjab, including Khanewal, Mian Channu and Lodhran.

Officials said a team of Balochistan police’s Counter Terrorism Department collected evidence from the crime scene and started an investigation into the incident, a senior police officer told Dawn.

The official said killings were similar to a number of attacks which took place recently in Turbat, Gwadar and areas in which natives of Punjab were targeted.

This was the third attack on Punjabi nationals in Balochistan in less than a month.

On April 13, nine passengers travelling on a Taftan-bound bus were killed in Noshki after being offloaded by gunmen belonging to the banned Balochistan Liberation Army organisation.

The victims, hailing from Wazirabad, Gujranwala and Mandi Bahauddin areas of Punjab, were travelling with visas and headed to Iran when the attackers intercepted their bus on the Quetta-Taftan N-40 Highway.

On April 28, in another targeted attack, two labourers belonging to Punjab were shot dead in the Tump area of Kech district.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for Thursday’s killings.

Law enforcement agencies have cordoned off the area, and a search was underway to arrest the attackers.

Gwadar Deputy Commissioner Hamoodur Rehman said that all the seven bodies have been sent to their native area through ambulances.

Condemnations

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and expressed condolences to the victims’ families, according to a statement posted on X.

“This incident of terrorism is a cowardly act of the enemies of the country. We are determined to eradicate terrorism from its roots,” the statement read.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti while condemning the attack called it a “barbaric act of terrorism”.

He expressed sympathies with the victims’ families and said they would not be abandoned and provided with all possible support.

“We will chase after terrorists and their facilitators,” the chief minister said.

“Whatever force is needed, we will use against the terrorists, and all steps would be taken to maintain the writ of the state in any case.”

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Balochistan Home Minister Mir Ziaullah Langove also expressed deep sorrow and condolences over the killings.

Those who play with the lives of the innocent don’t deserve to be called humans,” Mr Naqvi said in a statement shared on the Ministry of Interior’s official X account.

Mr Langove called it a “cowardly act” and vowed to bring the terrorists to justice.

Maulana Hidayatur Rehman Baloch, the Balochistan Assembly member from Gwadar, deplored the bloodshed in the province and said the poor were dying everywhere.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also said the attack was “blatant terrorism”.

People of Pakistan and Balochistan were “extremely angered by this barbarity,” Mr Bhutto-Zardari was quoted as saying in a statement posted on PPP’s official X account.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2024