Four labourers from Punjab were shot dead by unknown assailants in Balochistan’s Kalat district while four policemen were similarly gunned down in Noshki district on Saturday, according to officials.

A statement from Kalat Deputy Commissioner (DC) retired Captain Jamil Baloch said “unknown assailants opened fire and killed four laborers” in the Malangzai area of Kalat’s Mangochar city around 2:30pm.

It said there was one survivor and the five individuals, residents of Sadiqabad, were working as borewell drillers. The DC added that ⁠Levies personnel reached the site and the bodies were taken to Rural Health Centre Mande Haji for medical examination.

“⁠Further investigation is under way and FIR (first information report) will be lodged against those responsible,” the DC said.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, Noshki Senior Superintendent of Police Hashim Khan told Dawn.com that armed men riding a motorcycle opened fire on a police mobile patrolling in the Gharibabad area, martyring four cops on the spot.

He said the bodies were moved to a hospital and the police had cordoned off the area with a search under way for the assailants.

President Asif Ali Zardari strongly condemned the attack and called for effective action against terrorist elements targeting unarmed labourers.

“Targeting innocent workers and civilians is a most brutal and condemnable act,” he said.

Radio Pakistan reported that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said those who targeted poor labourers and workers were the “enemies of humanity” and resolved to eliminate all forms of terrorism from the country.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti condemned the attacks as a “brutal act of terrorism”.

“The blood of the martyrs will be accounted for and the anti-state elements will be made an example of. Every conspiracy to disrupt the peace of Balochistan will fail!” he said in a post on X.

The development comes amid a tense security situation prevailing in the province after last week’s terrorist hijacking of the Jaffar Express train in Bolan district.

Last month, unidentified gunmen killed seven people travelling to Punjab after off-loading them from a passenger bus in the Barkhan district.

Balochistan has witnessed a spate of attacks targeting those hailing from Punjab. In two separate incidents in April 2024, nine people were killed after being forced off a bus near Noshki, while two labourers from Punjab were shot in Kech.

In May last year, seven barbers from Punjab were shot dead near Gwadar, while August saw 23 travellers offloaded from trucks and buses and shot in the Musakhail district. In September, terrorists armed with automatic weapons stormed an under-construction house in the Khuda-i-Abadan area of Panj­gur town and killed seven labourers, all hailing from Multan.

In October 2023, unidentified gunmen fatally shot six labourers hailing from Punjab in Turbat in Kech district. According to the police, the killings were targeted. All victims belonged to different areas of southern Punjab, suggesting they had been chosen for their ethnic background.

In 2019, gunmen stopped a bus near Ormara near Gwadar district, and shot dead 14 people, including personnel of the Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guards, after checking their CNICs.

A similar incident occurred in 2015 when gunmen killed 20 construction workers and injured three others in a pre-dawn attack on a labourers’ camp near Turbat. The victims belonged to Sindh and Punjab.