BOLAN: Rebel separatists Tuesday killed 14 people, including three security officers, after stopping vehicles at a fake checkpoint in Balochistan.

The attack happened in the Mach area of Bolan district, 70 kilometres (44 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Quetta. It appears to have targeted mostly people from the central province of Punjab ahead of Eidul-Fitr.

“Miscreants blocked the road in two places. First they took away five Frontier Corps (FC) men from a patrol vehicle, tied them up and snatched their walkie-talkies and weapons,” provincial home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told AFP.

The rebels then stopped two Punjab-bound buses and took away 13 labourers. Security forces' personnel chased after them, but the rebels fired off a rocket that killed one security officer, Durrani said.

“Then they lined them up in the mountains and killed 13,” added Durrani.

According to Mach tehsildar, Zubair Ahmed Kurd, a Frontier Corps (FC) and Levies operation was ongoing in the area where the kidnapping took place to apprehend the culprits.

Local official, Kashif Nabi, confirmed the incident and said the bodies had been recovered. “We are making arrangements to bring them to Quetta,” he said.