Gunmen kill 23 in southwest Pakistan after offloading them from buses, checking identities

Karachi: Unidentified gunmen in a targeted attack shot and killed at least 23 people from Pakistan's Punjab province in the restive Balochistan province after offloading them from buses and checking their identities, according to media reports on Monday.

The incident happened in Balochistan’s Musakhel district.

According to Assistant Commissioner Musakhail Najeeb Kakar, armed men blocked the inter-provincial highway in the Rarasham district of Musakhel and offloaded passengers from buses, the Dawn newspaper reported.

The dead were identified as belonging to Punjab province. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

The armed men also set 10 vehicles on fire, he said.

Police reached the spot and shifted the bodies to the hospital.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti strongly condemned the incident of terrorism.

He expressed heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the families of those who died in the cowardly act of terrorists.

The terrorists and their facilitators will not be able to escape an exemplary end, he said, adding that the Balochistan government will pursue the terrorists.

The Musakhel attack comes months nearly four months after a similar attack targeting people from Punjab. In April, nine passengers were offloaded from a bus near Noshki and shot dead after gunmen checked their ID cards.

In October last year, unidentified gunmen fatally shot six labourers hailing from Punjab in Turbat in Balochistan’s Kech district. According to the police, the killings were targeted. All victims belonged to different areas of southern Punjab, suggesting they had been chosen for their ethnic background.

A similar incident occurred in 2015 when gunmen killed 20 construction workers and injured three others in a pre-dawn attack on a labourers’ camp near Turbat.