QUETTA: Unknown armed men kidnapped five labourers in the Kalat area of Balochistan on Wednesday.

Levies officials said a group of armed men entered the camp of workers of a private company laying down a pipeline for a water channel in the Gaza area of Kalat and held them hostage at gunpoint.

The armed men set the machinery of the project on fire and abducted five workers. Soon after receiving information about the incident, security personnel rushed to the site and launched an operation in the area to trace the armed group involved in kidnapping the workers and setting the machinery on fire.

After the incident, the company stopped work on the project.

“We are making all-out efforts to recover the kidnapped workers safely,” a senior Levies official told Dawn, adding that the entire area had been cordoned off.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2023