Dam Workers Killed - Early Saturday, gunmen in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province shot and killed at least 20 sleeping workers, while wounding three at a dam construction site. The attack which had the dam workers killed is now considered the deadliest attack in recent times which targeted civilians in a region with low-level insurgency.
According to Commissioner Pasand Khan Buledi of Makran division, the dam workers were killed in the Gobdan area of Turbat district after the gunmen overpowered eight security guards. They shot the sleeping dam workers, killed them and eventually escaped.
Fortunately, the none of the overpowered guards were harmed during the attack.
16 of the dam workers killed were reportedly from Pakistan's Punjab province. Four of the deceased are from Sindh province.
As of the current moment, no group has claimed responsibility for the dam workers killed, according to Aljazeera.
District Police Officer Imran Qureshi said around 40 armed men who are part of the Baloch Liberation Front militant group were the ones who had the dam workers killed.
According to NBC News, the attackers even checked the laborers' IDs and killed the ones they identified as non-Baloch.
The chief minister of Balochistan, Malik Baloch was on visit to the port city Gawadar when he reached Turbat early morning Saturday. After hearing of the dam workers killed, he immediately called a high-level security session, also ordering the bodies of the workers to be transported via helicopter to their native villages.
Together with Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister, Baloch condemned the attack whils ordering a full investigation.
Balochistan, the area with the dam workers killed, is reportedly an area of low-intensity insurgency by nationalist and separatist Baloch groups who aim for substantial share of revenue from gas and mineral resources, as well as complete autonomy from Islamabad.
Sarfaraz Bugti, the Home Minister of Baluchistan, told private satellite news channel Geo TV that Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps was already searching in nearby mountains for the attackers of the dam workers killed.
"We will chase them down and brought them to justice," said Bugti. "We need help in this war against terrorists. Alone, we cannot fight."
The attack on the dam workers killed Saturday is known to be the deadliest attack in recent ones targeting civilians in the region. TIME reported that in September 2012, 10 laborers and five tribesmen in a labor camp were also gunned down in the province's Khuzdar district.
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