Firing in Quetta leaves six dead, one injured

F.P. Report

QUETTA: Some unidentified armed men on Friday resorted to firing and killed as many as six workers in Quetta’s Kharan area.

According to security agency Levies, the victims belonging to Punjab were hired by a private mobile phone company for work at a tower.

The officers said that corpses have shifted to the hospital for medical assistance whereas investigation into the matter has also been launched.

Earlier, gunmen killed 20 construction workers in Pakistan’s restive southwestern province of Balochistan, shooting them at point blank range after identifying they were not local.

“Gunmen stormed the camp of labourers in Gokh Don area of Baluchistan and killed 20 labourers,” senior police official Tariq Khilji.

“The labourers were working on construction of a small local bridge,” administration official Akbar Hussain Durranisaid. He said some of the labourers reported being woken from their sleep by the sound of gunshots and screams.

Balochistan 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.