Unidentified militants opened fire on labourers building a mosque in a remote part of bordering district of Naushki, some 180 kilometres west of Quetta on Saturday, killing five men. Police officer Munir Mengal said five labourers belonging to Rajanpur area of Punjab were working in an under-construction mosque in a village of Shah Mohammad in Kissan Kuri area when the armed motorcyclists attacked them.
Assistant Commissioner Zahir Jan Jamadini said the labourers were working for several weeks in Kissan Kuri and all belonged to Punjab. Baloch Liberation Army spokesman Meerak Baloch claimed responsibility for the killings, warning that five employees of the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation, who had been abducted a few days ago, would also be executed if PMDC did not shut down its mining projects in Balochistan.
