Armed men killed two labourers from Punjab in Balochistan’s Kech district on Sunday, levies said, as provincial Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti condemned the killing which he described as a “terrorist attack”.

“Today, two Pakistanis were martyred by the so-called Baloch terrorists in the Kech district of Balochistan on the basis of their identity,” Bugti said in a social media post on X.

According to levies, the labourers belonged to Punjab’s Faisalabad city. Further investigation was under way as the province saw another incident of ethnic killing.

Separately, unidentified men gunned down two labourers inside a shop in Turbat’s Josak area. The deceased were reported to be from Punjab.

Earlier this month, the banned terrorist group Balochistan Liberation Army singled out nine men from a passenger bus on the basis of their identity and killed them in the province’s Noshki.

The bodies of the victims were discovered beneath a bridge in the mountainous area of Noshki, with gunshot wounds inflicted on various parts of their bodies. The deceased individuals were identified as residents of Mandi Bahauddin and Gujranwala.

On Saturday, security forces killed a terrorist and injured another when they were trying to stop passenger vehicles plying on Sanjavi Road in the Harnai district of Balochistan. “The timely response by the security forces thwarted nefarious intent of the terrorists, saving innocent lives,” the ISPR statement said.

Bugti, who has announced his decision to form a committee to hold talks with separatists, said that whenever people like him say nationalist separatist groups were terrorists in Balochistan then it was said that “it is a fight for rights.”

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In this moment of grief, he said that the Balochistan government stood with the oppressed and innocent workers.

“We will bring these terrorists and their financial and ideological supporters to justice,” Bugti said.