- CM Bugti terms it open terrorism, saying will chase after terrorists and their facilitators
- PM condemns incident, saying ‘we are determined to eradicate terrorism from its roots’
QUETTA: Unknown gunmen on Thursday gunned down seven barbershop workers and injured another in Gwadar’s Surbandar area during a late-night raid on their residential quarters while asleep, the police officials said.
Gwadar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Zohaib Mohsin confirmed the incident, saying the victims were workers at a barber shop in Surbandar area, some 25 kilometres from Gwadar. “The incident took place at approximately 3am when the assailants raided their residential quarters and shot them dead while asleep”, the SSP said, adding that the victims hailed from Punjab’s Khanewal and Lodhran districts, while the injured belongs to Mian Channu, Khanewal.
“We are investigating the matter at the moment but apparently it looks like they were attacked because they were Punjabis,” the SSP told AFP.
Following the incident, the police shifted the injured person and bodies of the deceased to Gwadar Hospital, SSP Mohsin said. He added that the area was cordoned off by law enforcement as action had begun to find the miscreants.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
According to Gwadar Deputy Commissioner Hamoodur Rehman, the bodies have been shifted to their native areas via four ambulances. The injured has also been shifted to Karachi after medical aid was administered to him, he added.
Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti condemned the killing of the workers in Gwadar, calling it “open terrorism”.
He expressed his condolences to their families and said that their families would not be abandoned, vowing to provide all possible support to the families.
“We will chase after terrorists and their facilitators,” Bugti said, adding that there is no soft corner or place for them in Pakistan.
“Whatever force is needed against the terrorists will be used,” the chief minister said. He stressed that the writ of the state would be enforced in any case.
“Every single drop of the blood of Pakistanis will be accounted for,” he said.
Condemnations
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the incident and expressed his condolences to the victims’ families, according to a statement on X by state broadcaster PTV News.
“This incident of terrorism is a cowardly act of the enemies of the country. We are determined to eradicate terrorism from its roots,” the statement read.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi echoed similar sentiments, expressing deep sorrow and condolences over the killing of the seven labourers.
“The beasts who play with the lives of the innocent don’t deserve to be called humans,” Naqvi said in a statement shared by the Ministry of Interior on X.
Meanwhile, the Balochistan government also condemned the killing and called it “open terrorism”, according to a spokesperson.
Administrative officers reached the site of the incident and were in touch with district administration, the spokesperson said. Families of the deceased are being contacted, the spokesperson added.
An investigation into the incident has been ordered, the spokesperson noted.
