QUETTA: Unidentified gunmen stormed a residential compound in southwestern Pakistan late Saturday night and shot dead seven laborers who all hailed from Punjab, police said, in the latest ethnic attack to take place in the country’s restive province. 

Pakistan’s Balochistan province, which shares porous borders with Afghanistan and Iran, has been the scene of a low-lying insurgency for decades. Ethnic Baloch nationalists have long accused the central government and Punjab of monopolizing profits from Balochistan’s natural resources. The state denies these allegations. 

The overnight attack took place in Khudabadan area near the remote Panjgur city, Panjgur District Police Officer Syed Fazil Bukhari told Arab News. He said the laborers were sleeping in their residential compound when the attackers shot them. 

“Seven laborers and residents of Shujabad village in Multan district were killed in the attack and one received severe bullet wounds and was shifted to District Headquarters Hospital,” Bukhari said. 

He added that the gunmen had managed to flee after carrying out the attack. 

“Security forces have launched a search operation in the area to hunt down the attackers involved in the recent killing of laborers from Punjab province,” Bukhari said. 

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the separatist militant outfit Balochistan Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for killing Punjab-based laborers in the past. 

BLA militants claimed responsibility for killing at least 23 residents of Punjab in Balochistan’s Musakhel district last month. The victims were forced out of their vehicles by the militants, who shot them after checking their identity. 

Simultaneous attacks were also launched on the same day that killed over 50 in one of the deadliest attacks in Balochistan in recent years. Militants also destroyed a key railway bridge that connects the southwestern province to other parts of the country.