Seven labourers were gunned down and one critically injured when unidentified militants stormed their residential quarters in Gwadar\u2019s Surbandar area in the early hours of Thursday. The victims, all hailing from Punjab\u2019s Khanewal and Lodhran districts, were asleep when the assailants barged in and opened indiscriminate fire, police officials said.<\/p>\n
According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Zohaib Mohsin, the gruesome incident took place around 3 am within the jurisdiction of Gwadar\u2019s coastal town of Surbandar, located around 25 kilometres away. The labourers worked at a local barbershop as reported by Dawn.<\/p>\n
Mohsin revealed that the deceased were non-locals while the injured man belonged to Mian Channu, a town in Khanewal district. In the aftermath, security forces cordoned off the area and launched a manhunt to track down the perpetrators. The bodies and the injured were shifted to Gwadar Hospital.<\/p>\n
The cold-blooded killings sent shockwaves across Balochistan, sparking strong condemnation from the provincial government who termed it \u201copen terrorism\u201d against innocent Pakistani citizens. \u201cWe will chase after terrorists and their facilitators\u2026whatever force is needed against the terrorists will be used,\u201d vowed Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo in a stern statement.<\/p>\n
Bizenjo assured that the families of the victims would not be abandoned and pledged full support. \u201cThe writ of the state would be enforced in any case. Every single drop of the blood of Pakistanis will be accounted for,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n
Home Minister Mir Ziaullah Langau echoed similar resolute views, calling the killings a \u201ccowardly act\u201d and vowing to bring the terrorists to justice at all costs. \u201cThe killing of innocent labourers is a cowardly act\u2026the terrorists will be dealt with strictly,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n
No terrorist outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. However, the source and motive seem clear from the nationalist insurgents who have been waging a separatist rebellion for decades against the state, alleging subjugation and resource exploitation by Islamabad.<\/p>\n
The mineral-rich but impoverished province has long been a flashpoint of simmering ethnic, religious and sectarian violence. Despite multiple operations by Pakistan\u2019s security forces, militancy continues to draw lifeblood from the grievances of the Baloch populace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The cold-blooded killings sent shockwaves across Balochistan, sparking strong condemnation from the provincial government who termed it \u201copen terrorism\u201d against innocent Pakistani citizens. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":366,"featured_media":16334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1007,85,10275,1345,319,10274],"class_list":["post-16333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan","tag-gwadar","tag-pakistan","tag-surbandar","tag-terrorism","tag-terrorist","tag-terrorist-attacks"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}