QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen stormed a house and killed seven laborers and wounded an eighth in Pakistan’s southwest Balochistan province, a police official said Saturday.
The workers were all from the same town in Punjab, which is in Pakistan’s east.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but separatists in Balochistan have often killed workers and others from Punjab to force them to leave the southwest, which for years has been rocked by an insurgency from groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad.
Police officer Zaheer Ahmed said that armed men entered the rented house where the laborers were staying and opened fire. Seven were killed and one was seriously wounded. All were taken to Panjgur District Hospital.
An investigation is underway and the bodies will be taken to Punjab on Sunday, said Ahmed.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the shootings and expressed his condolences to the victims’ families.
Saturday’s assault was reminiscent of one in April, when gunmen killed nine people from Punjab after abducting them from a bus. In May, gunmen fatally shot seven barbers, all from Punjab.
Balochistan last month was rocked by multiple, coordinated attacks that killed dozens, the highest death toll in a 24-hour period blamed on separatists in recent years.
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