Suspected militants on Friday gunned down three workers building a Chinese-funded "Silk Road" highway in the Hoshab, just days after a similar attack killed 10, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but previous attacks in have been unleashed by separatists who fear the construction projects are a ruse to take over their land.

Last week's attacks were claimed by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). The men killed on Friday were part of a team working on a major highway linking the port-city of Gwadar to the provincial capital of Quetta, said Sarmad Saleem, a regional official.

"One labourer died on the spot and two others succumbed to their injuries in hospital," Saleem said.

They were making a trip to a marketplace in the small town of Hoshab, 280 km (174 miles) from Gwadar, to buy daily supplies, an official of the paramilitary force overseeing security in Balochistan, told Reuters.

-REUTERS