Militants kill 7 bus passengers in southwestern Pakistan

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD (AA) - At least seven passengers were killed by militants in the southwestern Balochistan province of Pakistan, police said on Wednesday.

"The terrorists stopped a passenger bus on its way from Quetta to Faisalabad in the Barkhan area and killed the passengers last night," Ali Baloch, a local police official at the police emergency control room, told Anadolu over the phone.

According to Baloch, the militants took seven passengers, who belonged to the Punjab province, to a nearby mountain and killed them.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti also confirmed the attack and condemned the killing of passengers.

No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Friday, at least 11 people were killed when an explosion targeted a van carrying coal miners in southwestern Pakistan.

Last year in August, militants killed 23 passengers in the Musakhel district of southwestern Balochistan province after forcing them to disembark from several vehicles.

Pakistan has seen a surge in terror attacks in recent years, particularly in the provinces of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan.

Mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan's largest but poorest province. Security forces have long faced a low-intensity rebellion from Baloch separatists, who claim the province has been denied major developments.

The province is also a key route for the $64 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which aims to connect China's strategically important northwestern Xinjiang province with Balochistan's Gwadar port via a network of roads, railways, and pipelines for cargo, oil, and gas transportation.