At least seven barbers from Punjab were killed in a Gwadar neighbourgood in a grisly attack apparently motivated by ethnic hate in the small hours of Thursday, according to police. One person was also injured in the deadly shooting that took place at a residential quarter near the Fish Harbour Jetty in the Surbandar area of Gwadar.
The attack occurred around 3am and the victims were shot at point blank range in execution style in their sleep, police said. All the victims hailed from Khanewal district of Punjab which leads police investigators to believe that the carnage might have been motivated by ethnic hate.
The gunmen managed to flee unidentified and unchallenged after the sinister mass murder. The casualties were driven to a government-run hospital in Gwadar where they were identified as Sajid, Asad, Ansar, Shaan, Mukarrab, Adnan, and Hasib, while their eighth colleague, Arsalan, is being treated for his gunshot wounds.
The law enforcement agencies have opened an investigation into the attack.
Balochistan has been wrecked by a separatist, militant, and sectarian violence for more than two decades now. However, no group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday’s massacre. In the past, similar attacks targeted at settlers or economic migrants from Punjab were carried out by Baloch separatists who blame Punjab for the plight of their resource-rich but dirt-poor province.
On April 13, nine would-be economic migrants from Punjab were shot dead in the Noshki district of Balochistan. They were abducted from a bus and killed execution-style, police and administration officials said. The attack was ethnically motivated because the attackers checked the identity cards of the passengers before whisking away nine of them hailing from Punjab.
The bus was en route to the Taftan border with Iran from Punjab and all those on board were going to cross over into Iran in an attempt to sneak into Europe illegally in search of better economic opportunities.
Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti condemned the incident promising to bring to justice those responsible for gruesome carnage of innocent people. “The terrorists would not be spared,” Bugti said in a statement. Terrorists are targeting unarmed labourers to serve the nefarious designs of their pay masters, he added.
Balochistan Home Minister Mir Ziaullah Langove also denounced the terrorist attack and sought a report from police. “Ensure the arrest of culprits behind this attack,” he directed police and other law enforcement agencies.
Lawmakers in the Balochistan Assembly also offered fateha for the departed souls and most of the members from the treasury and opposition benches strongly condemned the brutal killing of labourers. They urged the government to step up efforts to apprehend the culprits behind the sickening killings.
Security was tightened in and around Gwadar in the aftermath of the carnage.
