QUETTA: Gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on construction workers, killing 10 in Balochistan, officials said on Saturday.
Mineral-rich Balochistan has been plagued for decades by a separatist insurgency and sectarian killings and gunmen have previously targeted labourers seen as outsiders in the region.
“Two gunmen riding on motorbikes opened fire on a group of construction workers in Peshukan Ganz neighbourhood of Gwadar,” local administration official Munir Zamari told AFP.
“One worker sustained injuries and he is being treated at a local hospital,” he added.
The incident was confirmed by another administration official Naeem Bazai, who said that all the workers were from Sindh province.
A spokesman for the terrorist outfit Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the incident.
Balochistan is the largest of Pakistan’s four provinces, but its roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth.
A greater push towards peace and development by Pakistani authorities has reduced the violence considerably in recent years.
The push includes starting work on a massive Chinese infrastructure project — the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor — which gives Beijing a route to the Arabian Sea through Balochistan’s deep sea port of Gwadar.
The assailants attacked the men at two separate construction sites three kilometres apart along the same road. They then fled the scene.
“All the labourers were shot at close range,” said senior levies official Muhammad Zareef.
A special military C-130 aircraft flew the remains of the slain labourers after funeral prayers to their hometown in Sindh’s Naushehro Feroze District.
Frontier Constabulary, police and levies personnel reached the spot and an investigation is underway.
The shooting incident occured as Pakistan and China inked agreements aimed at boosting cooperation in various sectors between the two countries on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum, which is underway in Beijing at the moment.
Talking to a private TV channel, Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti also confirmed the death toll. Condemning the incident, he said, “We will not bow down before terrorists.”
