QUETTA, Feb 24: Six labourers were gunned down by terrorists in Shadi Kaur area of Gwadar district on Sunday.

They have been identified as Abdul Haleem, Muhammad Yousuf, Nouruddin, Khlo Jan, Yameen and Rehmatullah.

There is no security for labourers and other people, working on the highways and other important roads across the province although several such incidents have taken place over the past couple of years, leaving a large number of civilians dead and injured.

Official sources said the workers had been attacked in the early hours of Sunday at a place about 25 kilometres from Pasni town on the coastal highway linking Gwadar to Karachi.

The sources said the labourers were working on the highway near Shadi Kaur when four gunmen on motorcycles reached there, lined up all of them and opened fire.

“A 12-year-old boy, who was spared by the gunmen, gave details of the incident to law-enforcement personnel,” Pasni’s Assistant Commissioner Naeem Gichki told Dawn.

Personnel of local administration, Levies and other law-enforcement agencies rushed to the area and took the bodies to Gwadar district hospital.

“All the labourers working for a construction company were from Zhob district,” Mr Gichki said.

According to a senior police officer, the gunmen lined up all labourers and, after checking their identity, shot them dead.

“We are investigating the incident,” AC Pasni said, adding that the statement of 12-year-old boy was important and this would help us identify the killers.

Sources said the company had brought the labourers to Pasni from Zhob.

Gwadar district police officials said that security forces were looking for terrorists, but no arrest had been made till late in the evening.

Meanwhile, a demonstration was held in protest against the killing in front of the Quetta Press Club on Sunday evening. The protesters chanted slogans against the government and the Pasni administration.

They demanded that the government should arrest terrorists involved in the killing of the unarmed labourers and give them exemplary punishment.