14 dead in Makran Coastal Highway shooting

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At least 14 passengers were forced to offload from a passenger bus on Makran Coastal Highway in Balochistan’s Ormara area and shot dead by unidentified gunmen early on Thursday.

The attackers, who numbered around two dozen, were wearing camouflage uniforms, provincial home secretary Haider Ali told AFP.

They “stopped buses on the Makran Coastal Highway and gunned down 14 people”, he said, adding that the four vehicles were travelling to Karachi from the coastal town of Ormara.

Provincial home minister Mir Zia Langov said a full-scale investigation had been launched into the attack and to track down the gunmen, who he said had fled the scene.

“Such incidents are intolerable and we will not spare the terrorists who carried out this dastardly attack,” he said.

The bodies were shifted to a nearby health facility in Ormara.

The attack came less than a week after 21 people, including eight Hazara, were killed and 48 others injured in a suicide blast in Quetta’s Hazarganji sabzi mandi.