Sardhaka/Balochistan; In a shocking act of terrorism, militants targeted passenger buses in the Sardhaka area of Balochistan, forcibly identifying and executing nine innocent civilians, all reportedly from Punjab.
The attackers intercepted two Lahore-bound coaches on the N-70 highway near Sara Dhaka, offloaded passengers after checking their identity cards, and led nine of them into nearby mountains where their bodies were later found between Thursday night and Friday morning.
Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind condemned the attack as a cowardly assault on Pakistan’s peace and unity. He revealed that simultaneous attacks were also attempted in Quetta, Loralai, and Mastung, but security forces successfully thwarted them.
Law enforcement immediately launched an extensive operation to hunt down the perpetrators. Officials suspect foreign-backed networks seeking to destabilize the region and spread panic.
Early Friday, authorities confirmed recovering the bodies of the nine victims, who were transported to Punjab to be handed over to their families. Assistant Commissioner Naveed Alam stated that seven victims had been identified, while two remained unidentified due to missing documents, likely taken by the militants. Among those identified were residents from Lodhran, Dera Ghazi Khan, Gujrat, Attock, Khanewal, and Gujranwala.
The banned Balochistan Liberation Front later claimed responsibility, stating it had executed the attack after blocking the highway connecting Musakhail-Makhtar to Khajuri.
Provincial spokesperson Rind said the group, labeled as “Fitna-al-Hindustan” by the government, was also behind attacks in Kakat and Mastung the same night.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti strongly condemned the killings. President Zardari described the atrocity as part of an evil plot by “Fitna-al-Hindustan” to spill Pakistani blood, pledging to root out these elements.
PM Sharif vowed to retaliate with full force, declaring the murder of unarmed civilians an unambiguous act of terrorism. CM Bugti warned that Balochistan would become a graveyard for such enemies, emphasizing that the killing of innocents based on ethnicity was an unforgivable crime. He promised harsh retaliation, asserting that terrorists would not be allowed to find shelter, even underground.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi echoed these sentiments on social media, stressing the need to foil Indian-backed conspiracies with national unity.
The National Assembly Speaker, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, strongly denounced the attack, attributing it to Indian-sponsored terrorists aiming to fracture national cohesion. Expressing solidarity, he extended heartfelt sympathies to the victims’ families and declared that the entire nation stands by them. He vowed that terrorists and their facilitators would face justice and reaffirmed parliament’s unwavering support to Pakistan’s armed forces in defeating terrorism.
According to accounts from survivors, armed men stopped the two buses near Dab on the Loralai-Zhob border, boarded the vehicles, checked identity cards, and forcibly dragged out ten passengers. One passenger recounted hearing gunshots after the militants disappeared with the captives. The militants also fired at the buses to prevent escapes before letting the remaining passengers leave.
Security forces quickly sealed the area, suspended traffic, and initiated large-scale search operations. Sources indicated the attackers specifically targeted passengers from Punjab.
Among the bereaved was Sabir Toor, who told Geo News that he was traveling with ten family members from Quetta to Lodhran for his father’s funeral when militants abducted and killed his two brothers in front of their family. “We now have three funerals,” he said, urging authorities to eradicate these violent groups.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned the massacre, urging the state to pursue political solutions to Balochistan’s longstanding grievances. The HRCP stressed that violence against laborers and ordinary citizens must end immediately.
Balochistan has seen repeated attacks on Punjabi residents, with incidents in April, February, and last year claiming dozens of lives. The government earlier this year officially labeled all terror outfits in the province under the banner of “Fitna-al-Hindustan,” highlighting the persistent and targeted nature of this violence.
