QUETTA, Pakistan – Gunmen in restive western Pakistan shot and killed at least 20 workers early Saturday at a dam construction site, the deadliest recent attack targeting civilians in a region facing a low-level insurgency, authorities said.
The violence targeted the Gobdan area of the Turbat district in southwestern Baluchistan province, a region where nationalist and separatist Baluch groups have fought against the Islamabad-based government for years. However, no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Pakistan, a country that faces a deadly Taliban insurgency and threats from other Islamic extremists.
A large group of gunmen attacked a labor camp near the dam construction site, overpowering eight security guards on the site and shooting dead sleeping laborers before fleeing, government commissioner Pasand Khan Buledi of the Makran division said. Buledi gave the casualty figure and said the attack wounded three people.
Buledi said 16 of the dead were from Pakistan’s Punjab province and four were from Sindh province.
Baluchistan government spokesman Jan Mohammad Buledi said a search operation was underway to catch the fleeing attackers. He said the government would offer the families of the deceased 1 million rupees (nearly $10,000) each.