Gunmen abduct and kill nine people after stopping passenger buses on Pakistan highway

Overnight attacks occur in Zhob and Loralai districts of Balochistan

(AFP/Getty)

Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan abducted and killed nine people after stopping two passenger buses on a highway Thursday night, officials said.

The overnight attacks occurred in the Zhob and Loralai districts of Balochistan province as the buses traveled from the provincial capital, Quetta, to Punjab province, district administrator Saadat Husain said Friday.

The attackers fled the scene and a search is underway to track down the assailants. Authorities recovered the bodies along the highway, Husain said.

Ashfaq Chaudhry, an administrator in Punjab’s Dera Ghazi Khan district, said the attackers appeared to target passengers from Punjab specifically.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the abduction and killings of the bus passengers.

Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari issued a statement condemning the “brutal killing of passengers” in Balochistan. He blamed the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army for the deaths and said the group wanted to “spread chaos and instability in Pakistan.”