Quetta, February 19 (HS): Attackers opened fire on a bus in Barkhan district of Balochistan, Pakistan and killed at least 7 passengers after removing them from the bus. All the passengers killed were residents of different parts of Punjab. The attack took place late on Tuesday night. Barkhan Assistant Commissioner (AC) Khadim Hussain confirmed this on Wednesday morning.

According to Geo News, armed attackers opened fire on a bus in Barkhan district of Balochistan late on Tuesday night and later killed 7 passengers after removing them from the bus. The attack took place on the national highway in Rarkan area, where unknown armed attackers stopped a passenger bus and fired bullets in the air. After this, the gunmen boarded the bus, checked the identity cards of the passengers and forcibly took 7 people to a nearby mountain. Shortly after, gunfire was heard. When security forces reached the spot, the bodies of the kidnapped passengers were found in the hilly area. The deceased were residents of different cities of Punjab.

According to the bus service office, the bus was going from Quetta to Faisalabad and at least 45 passengers were on board. The number of attackers was around 10-12 and all were armed with sophisticated weapons.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti strongly condemned the incident and said that terrorists are targeting innocent and unarmed civilians. He said that this cowardly attack by the enemies of peace is intolerable.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar