At least seven non-local labourers were killed by armed men in Kechh district, 1,050kms southwest of Quetta, on Tuesday in an attack claimed by the Baloch Liberation Front.
According to reports, the labourers, who belonged to Waziristan, were working for a private construction company building the Turbat-Buleda Road. They were in their camp in Masken, around 120kms north of Turbat, when eight armed men surrounded the camp, lined up seven labourers and sprayed them with bullets. All seven men were killed on the spot. The armed men separated two local labourers and allowed them to go.
After the incident the Levies and personnel of the Frontier Corps Balochistan rushed to the area and took custody of the bodies. Confirming the incident, Kechh Deputy Commissioner Hafeez Hoath said the attackers were believed to be eight to 10 in number. He said the attackers set the road construction machinery and company’s vehicles on fire before escaping. Doda Baloch, a spokesman for the banned Baloch Liberation Front, called newspaper offices and claimed the responsibility for the attack. He said the BLA had time and again warned construction companies and their labourers not to be part of conspiracies against the Baloch people. Meanwhile, a complete shutter-down strike was observed in most parts of Balochistan to protest the killing of Sangat Sana Baloch, a leader of the Baloch Republican Party, whose bullet-ridden body was recovered along with that of another political activist on Monday. Two more decomposed bodies of Baloch missing persons were recovered in Lasbela on Tuesday.