QUETTA, Pakistan — Pakistani police are searching for gunmen who killed eight people after kidnapping them from a bus on a highway in the country’s southwest, a police official said Saturday.
According to the police official, the kidnapping took place Friday in Balochistan province, which has long been the scene of an insurgency by separatists fighting for independence.
Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Mosakhail said the gunmen established a blockade, then stopped the bus and examined passengers’ ID cards. They took eight people with them, all from the eastern province of Punjab, and fled to the mountains, he said.
Police later found eight bodies under a bridge about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the highway. Earlier on Friday, the same gunmen opened fire on a vehicle that did not stop to respect their blockade, killing two people and injuring six.
A search for the perpetrators was underway, Mosakhail said. The bus was heading from the provincial capital of Quetta to Taftan, a border town with Iran.
Kidnappings are rare in Balochistan, where militants typically target police forces, soldiers or infrastructure.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killings. Police said there had been no ransom demand and no indication of a motive for the attacks.
ABC News
