Gwadar (Web Desk): Unidentified gunmen shot dead seven labourers from Punjab in a targeted attack in Sarbandar area of Gwadar in Balochistan province on early Thursday.
According to Gwadar Police Station House Officer (SHO) Mohsin Ali, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a residential quarter near the Gwadar Fish Harbour in the Surbandar area, leaving seven dead and one injured.
The police official said that the dead and injured individuals used to work in a barbershop in the area and belonged to district Khanewal in Punjab.
The SHO added that the dead and the injured individual have all been shifted to the Gwadar Hospital.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday strongly condemned the killing of seven people in Gwadar.
The prime minister prayed to Allah Almighty for peace for the departed souls and sympathised with the bereaved families.
“We share the grief of the victim families. Such an attack is a cowardly act of anti-state elements,” PM Shehbaz said, reiterating the resolve to eliminate terrorism from the country.
Earlier, 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”.
He said that 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.
Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi strongly condemned the terrorist incident in Gwardar on Thursday.
He expressed his heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and said that government equally shares the grief of the bereaved families and standing with the grieving families in the hour of sorrow.
Beasts who play with the lives of innocent people do not deserve to be called human beings, said the minister in his message.
“We are committed to the complete elimination of the scourge of terrorism” Mohsin Naqvi said.