Nine labourers among 11 shot dead in Noshki

Nine of the deceased, who belonged to Punjab, were travelling in a bus on the National Highway from Quetta to Taftan when they were stopped by the unknown militants, pulled out of the bus and abducted.

The police launched a search operation for the abductees, however, their bodies were found under the bridge near a hill. All of them had been shot dead.

The murdered men belonged to the Mandi Bahauddin, Wazirabad and Gujranwala areas of Punjab. According to Nushki Superintendent of Police (SP) Allah Bukhsh, the deceased men were labourers.

Nushki Teaching Hospital MS Dr Zafar Mengal said the murdered men had been shot in various parts of their bodies.

In another incident, two people were gunned down while three others sustained injuries, said the police.

Nushki Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Musakhel said over a dozen militants blocked the Quetta-Nushki-Taftan N-40 National Highway at the hilly point of Sultan Chadhai, which is around 1 kilometre away from Nushki, on Friday night.

DC Musakhel said that after blocking the highway, the armed men started checking the vehicles and opened fire on a vehicle that did not stop, killing one of the men who was a relative of the member provincial assembly.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti condemned the killing of 11 people, saying that the terrorists involved in the incident will not be pardoned.

CM Bugti that the terrorists involved in the attacks would be chased, adding that their aim was to sabotage the peace of Balochistan.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also condemned the incident, saying that the government stands with the families of the deceased at this time.

"There is no room for such a tragic incident in Quaid-e-Azam's Pakistan," he added.