Gunmen in Gwadar kill 7 barber shop workers from Punjab

GWADAR: Seven barber shop staffers were killed Thursday by unidentified gunmen in Balochistan's port city while they were sleeping in their residential quarters.

The unidentified gunmen, according to Gwadar Police Station Station House Officer (SHO) Mohsin Ali, opened fire at the workers who lived near the Gwadar Fish Harbour in the Surbandar area.

At least seven of the workers were killed, while one of them got injured in the attack. As per the police official, all these men worked in the area's barber shop and hailed from district Khanewal in Punjab.

The SHO told Geo News that the dead bodies and the injured individual have all been shifted to the Gwadar Hospital.

At least five among the seven labourers murdered in Gwadar belonged to Mian Channu, the Tehsil’s assistant commissioner told Geo News.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti condemned the killing of the barber shop workers in Gwadar extending his sympathies towards the families of the victims.

CM Bugti also sought a report on the matter, maintaining that “all kinds of force will be used to arrest the terrorists and their facilitators”.

Balochistan Home Minister Mir Zia Ullah Langau has ordered an investigation into the killing of the seven deceased, terming it “open terrorism”.

The minister said the killing of workers is a cowardly move, terrorists will be dealt with strictly.

Meanwhile, provincial government’s spokesperson said that the families of the workers are being contacted.

'Cowardly act'

In the wake of the brutal killing, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a strong condemnation, terming the terrorism incident a cowardly act of the enemies of the country.

“We are determined to eradicate the scourge of terrorism,” he said.

PM Shehbaz shared his grief for the victims’ families.

Bilawal condemns workers' killing

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has condemned the killing of the workers.

“Brutal killing of innocent workers is open terrorism,” the politician said, adding that people of the entire country, including Balochistan, are extremely angry over this brutality.

“The monsters involved in the crime should be brought to justice,” the PPP chief maintained.

This incident comes at least three weeks after unidentified assailants gunned down 11 people in separate terror incidents in the Nushki district of Balochistan.

At least 11 people were gunned down by unknown assailants in two separate terror incidents in Nushki district of Balochistan.

Nine of the deceased, who belonged to Punjab, were travelling in a bus on the National Highway from Quetta to Taftan when they were stopped by the militants, pulled out of the bus and abducted.

The police launched a search operation for the abductees, however, their bodies were found under the bridge near a hill. All of them had been shot dead.

The murdered men belonged to the Mandi Bahauddin, Wazirabad and Gujranwala areas of Punjab. According to Nushki Superintendent of Police (SP) Allah Bukhsh, the deceased men were labourers.

The police said that six people belonged to Mandi Bahauddin and were from the same village Chak Fateh Shah. Their family members said that the men had left for Iraq three days before Eid.

Meanwhile, two more were dead and three others sustained injuries in another incident in the city the same day.

Similarly, on March 20, security forces acted swiftly and foiled a fierce attack after a group of gunmen stormed the Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) colony.

Eyewitnesses said that they heard multiple explosions after firing in the complex which houses passport office, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) office, and other government offices.