QUETTA: Gunmen shot dead four ethnic Punjabi labourers and four policemen in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, officials said, in the latest killing in a volatile region where violence has drastically increased in recent weeks.
Attacks on labourers from other parts of the country have increased in Balochistan, with militants accusing them of profiting from the region.
The incident took place in Mangocher town of Kalat district in Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
“The militants arriving on motorcycles shot dead four Punjabi labourers who were operators of borewell drilling equipment,“ Ali Gul Imrani, a local administration official, told AFP.
A local police official, Muhammad Asghar, also confirmed the details to AFP.
In a separate incident, four policemen were killed in an ambush in Nushki district of the same province.
The region saw a dramatic train siege this month that officials said resulted in around 60 deaths, half of whom were separatists behind the assault.
The assault was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of several separatist groups that accuse outsiders of plundering the province’s natural resources.
No group has claimed responsibility for the Saturday attacks. However, BLA has claimed such attacks in the past.
Earlier this month, three ethnic Sindhi migrant barbers were shot dead in the province while in February, militants executed seven Punjabi labourers after stopping a bus and identifying where they were from.
Eleven Punjabi labourers were also killed after being abducted from a bus in the city of Naushki in April last year, and six Punjabi barbers were shot in May the same year.
