LOC17:20
14:20 GMT
ISLAMABAD, April 18 (KUNA) -- At least 14 passengers, including Pakistan Navy personnel, were forcibly offloaded from their bus and were shot dead by unidentified militants on Makran Coastal Highway in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province on Thursday, said officials.
Provincial police chief, IG Police Mohsin Hassan Butt told media that 15 to 20 unidentified armed assailants in camouflage were involved in the attack that occurred in the Buzi Top area of Ormara district in Balochistan.
The armed militants stopped the bus traveling between Karachi and Gawadar port, checked the identity cards of the passengers and offloaded 16 of them.
Fourteen of those offloaded were shot dead, while two passengers managed to escape and made it alive to the nearest security check post.
Provincial Home Secretary, Haider Ali confirming the death toll said that the assailants had been wearing clothes that resembled Frontier Corps uniforms. He further said one navy and one coast guard personnel were among those killed.
The bodies of the victims were recovered from a nearby hotel. The security forces cordoned off the area and a search operation went underway.
The motive behind the killings and the identity of the victims are yet not ascertained. No group has so far claimed responsibility of the attack. The incident of violence came a week after at least 16 people, including two children, were killed and around 30 others received injuries in an improvised explosive device blast at a vegetable market in Quetta city, the provincial capital of Balochistan. Earlier in 2015, armed men kidnapped about two dozen passengers from two Karachi-bound coaches and killed at least 19 of them in the mountainous area of Khad Kocha in Balochistan's Mastung district.
President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi expressed deep grief and sorrow over the loss of precious lives and said such attempts to spread mischief in the country will not succeed. In a statement, he said, "The nation is united and committed against terrorism." Meanwhile, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan also condemned the attack and has asked for a report of the attack. "He directed the authorities concerned to make every possible effort to identify and bring the perpetrators of the barbaric act to justice. The prime minister also expressed his sympathies with the bereaved families of the victims," a prime minister office statement said. (end)
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