DHAKA: Gunmen have killed 20 construction workers in Pakistan’s restive south-western province of Baluchistan, shooting them at point blank range after identifying where they were from.

Officials said on Saturday, reports The Straits Times.

The area is plagued by violence, with separatists seeking greater control over the province’s rich oil, gas and mineral resources and gunmen have previously targeted outsiders seen as settlers.

‘Armed gunmen stormed the camp of laborers in Gokh Don area of Baluchistan late Friday night and killed 20 laborers,’ senior police official Tariq Khilji told the media.

He said those killed were all from outside the province – 16 of them from Punjab and four from Sindh province.

The incident, which occurred around 1,050 km southwest of Quetta, was confirmed by Akbar Hussain Durrani, a senior administration official in the province.

‘The laborers were working on construction of a small local bridge,’ he said.

BDST: 1209 HRS, APR 11, 2015
RR