QUETTA, July 23: Armed men killed five labourers on the outskirts of Nushki town, some 170km west of here, on Saturday.

Sources in the Levies Force told Dawn the labourers were attacked when they were working at an under-construction mosque in the Killi Kasan Kori village, some 15km from Nushki.

The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack. Spokesman Mirack Baloch told journalists over satellite telephone that his organisation was behind the killings.

The sources said the labourers were working at the mosque when four armed men riding two motorcycles opened indiscriminate fire. Four labourers died on the spot and the fifth died of injuries in hospital.

Levies identified the dead workers as Munir Ahmed, Mohammad Ashfaq, Mohammad Zahid and Habibullah (residents of Rajanpur, district Dera Ghazi Khan) and Ghulam Hussain (resident of Dera Ghazi Khan). Levies said the ill-fated labourers had come to Nushki a few days ago.