KARACHI: Four laborers and a police officer were gunned down in the southwestern Pakistani city of Turbat on Tuesday morning, a provincial government spokesperson said, in an attack claimed by the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group.
This was the second attack this month on workers in the volatile Balochistan province, following an overnight raid that killed six laborers, who belonged to the Punjab province, in the same city on Oct 14.
“Terrorists have once again targeted ordinary people, which exposes their real face,” Balochistan Caretaker Information Minister Jan Achakzai told Arab News.
“One policeman has also been killed along with four laborers.”
Claiming responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, the outlawed BLA said the deceased were “informants” who worked for the government and security agencies.
Balochistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by the BLA and other separatist groups who demand independence from the central government in the capital as well as a greater share of the region’s resources.
They have in the past targeted people from Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh provinces as well as foreign workers they believe are exploiting the region without sharing its riches.
Religious militant groups also operate in the province, which has one of the world’s largest underdeveloped sites of copper and gold deposits as well as other untapped mines and minerals.
