The Balochistan government on Friday announced that two suspects were arrested in connection to the murder of seven labourers hailing from Punjab in the coastal town of Sarba­ndan.

Earlier this month, seven barbershop workers were killed and one was injured in Surbandar, Gwadar, when unknown gunmen entered their residential quarters and opened fire on them while they were sleeping.

The police said the victims belonged to different cities of south Punjab, including Khanewal, Mian Channu and Lodhran.

Addressing a press conference in Quetta, Balochistan Home Minister Zia Ullah Langau said all institutions were tasked to apprehend the culprits. “I congratulate all our institutions who fulfilled their responsibility and the government’s orders with their efforts and we have arrested two killers of the Gwadar labourers,” he said.

The home minister added: “Statements have been drawn from them which clearly show they were given orders … and guns and weapons have been seized from them.”

He said that as per their statements, the culprits were ordered to kill any Punjabi labourer.

“I’ve repeatedly said that foreign forces are behind these terrorist events,” he said, adding that his claim was no mere allegation as he had provided proof to back it up on different forums.

Terming the development a “great success”, Langau said: “It is the decision of the chief minister and the government that these are terrorists and they have no interest in our rights.”

He said killing poor labourers could not be called a struggle for rights but was tantamount to spreading terrorism in the country and serving the objectives of the country’s enemies.

Balochistan Counter Terrorism Department Deputy Inspector General Aitzaz Goraya said the two suspects were members of the proscribed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) organisation and were arrested from Gwadar with one of them being a Sarba­ndan local.

Langau said the provincial government was devising a plan of action to deal with the “new terrorism events gaining much support” and address the inadequacies in the administration’s capabilities.

Officials had previously said the Sarba­ndan killings were similar to several attacks which took place recently in Turbat, Gwadar and areas in which natives of Punjab were targeted.

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

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

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

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.