Six Punjabi labourers shot dead in Balochistan

QUETTA: Six labourers from Punjab employed by a private telecommunication company in Kharan district in Balochistan were gunned down on Thursday night by unidentified assailants.

The labourers were involved with the telecommunication company’s network installation and were working on a mobile tower.

The labourers did not have security and were working without a NOC [no objection certificate], according to Balochistan Levies.

Levies, Frontier Corps (FC) and civil administration officials inspected the site of the incident and shifted bodies of the deceased to Civil Hospital.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killings, but Balochistan is home to a long-running ethnic Baloch insurgency aimed at seeking greater control over the province’s abundant mineral resources.

Militants have previously targeted Punjabi and Sindhi labourers, who are largely considered outsiders in many parts of the province and viewed with deep suspicion.

Earlier this year, Muhammad Alam and Shah Nazar, members of Balochistan Constabulary (BC) were shot dead while they were on their way to work.

Last year, Four Sindhi workers working on a road project were also shot dead in the same area.

Hundreds of soldiers and militants have been killed since the insurgency flared up in the mid-2000s.

Pakistan also regularly accuses its eastern neighbour India of funding and arming the separatist insurgents.