Unidentified militants have killed seven passengers from Punjab by taking them off a bus in Barkhan district of Balochistan. Deputy Commissioner Barkhan Waqar Khurshid Alam has confirmed that ‘the passenger bus was going from Quetta to Lahore and was targeted on the highway connecting Quetta with Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab’s Rakhni tehsil of Barkhan.’
He said that ‘the armed men stopped the passenger bus and after checking the identity cards of the passengers, they took off the seven passengers from Punjab and later shot them dead.
According to Deputy Commissioner Barkhan, the armed men also fired at the tires of the bus when the passengers did not stop. After the incident, a heavy contingent of Levies and other security forces were sent from nearby areas to the area.
After this incident, the administration stopped passenger buses and vehicles at various places in Loralai, Kangri, and nearby areas as a precaution. At the same time, an emergency has been imposed in Rakhni Hospital.
District Chairman Barkhan Abdul Ghafoor Khetran said that the passenger bus was stopped at Chaudhry Petrol Pump near Levies Police Station in Ridkan, about 50 km from Rakhni.
He said that reports of firing are still being received.
The district chairman said that due to security concerns, the personnel are being sent in armored and bulletproof vehicles.
This is not the first incident of killing of passengers from Punjab in Balochistan. Not far from this place, 23 people were killed after being taken off buses in the Rara Sham area of ​​Musa Khel district adjacent to Barkhan in August last year. Similarly, nine passengers from Punjab who were going to Iran were taken off buses in Nushki last year and killed.
The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for both the incidents. After the killing of passengers in August last year, the government banned the night travel of buses going to other provinces, especially Punjab, for some time.
