QUETTA
\nFive labourers were shot dead after armed men opened fire on workers at a shop in the Mashkel area of Balochistan\u2019s Washuk district, police said on Sunday.
\nPolice said all five victims had travelled from outside the province, adding that the bodies were being shifted to their native areas after completion of legal formalities.
\nAccording to police, an investigation into the incident had been launched.
\nSecurity sources later said that the attack on the innocent labourers was carried out by Fitna al-Hindustan terrorists.
\nThe victims included Mohammad Bilal, Mohammad Hussain, Muhammad Qadeer, Mohsin and Bilal, they added.
\nSecurity forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to track down the terrorists, security sources said.
\nBalochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti condemned the killing of the unarmed labourers, saying terrorists had once again exposed their \u201csinister intentions\u201d by targeting innocent workers.
\n\u201cThe objective of terrorists is not the pursuit of any cause but to spread terror, hatred and destabilise Pakistan,\u201d CM Bugti said, adding that action against those challenging the writ of the state would become \u201cmore decisive\u201d.
\nBalochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind also condemned the incident, saying the provincial government had taken notice of the attack and ordered an investigation.
\n\u201cThose involved in the killing of innocent citizens will not escape the grip of the law,\u201d Rind said, adding that the government stood with the bereaved families in their time of grief.
\nThe incident comes amid ongoing security operations across the province, during which dozens of India-backed terrorists have been killed.
\nSecurity forces launched Operation Shaban following the attack on the Mangi Dam police station in Ziarat. The operation is being conducted jointly by the Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps (FC), and Balochistan Police, sources had said earlier. Pakistan witnessed a surge in terror activities, particularly in its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, since 2021, when the Afghan Taliban came into power.
\nIn response, Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, targeting terrorist hideouts across the border.
\nDespite several rounds of talks, both countries have been unable to reach an agreement, largely due to the Afghan Taliban regime\u2019s reluctance to take action against terrorist outfits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
QUETTA Five labourers were shot dead after armed men opened fire on workers at a shop in the Mashkel area of Balochistan\u2019s Washuk district, police said on Sunday. Police said all five victims had travelled from outside the province, adding that the bodies were being shifted to their native areas after completion of legal formalities. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":100174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100187,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100164\/revisions\/100187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}