Quetta, July 11, 2025 – In a tragic incident, nine passengers were abducted and killed by armed assailants in Balochistan’s Sardhaka area on Thursday night. The bodies were recovered and sent to their hometowns in Punjab on Friday morning, officials confirmed.
The attack took place in the Sur-Dakai area near the N-70 highway, along the Zhob-Loralai border, where two Punjab-bound buses were intercepted by gunmen. The assailants checked passengers’ identity cards, specifically targeting those from Punjab, and forcibly removed nine individuals—seven from one bus and two from the other—before executing them. The banned Balochistan Liberation Front claimed responsibility, stating the attack occurred between Musakhail-Makhtar and Khajuri. Assistant Commissioner Naveed Alam noted that seven victims were identified as residents of Lodhran, Dera Ghazi Khan, Gujrat, Attock, Khanewal, and Gujranwala, while two remain unidentified due to missing documents, likely taken by the attackers.
Sabir Toor, a surviving passenger, recounted the horrific loss of his brothers, Usman and Jabir, who were traveling from Quetta to Lodhran for their father’s funeral. “We now face three funerals,” Toor said, urging security forces to eliminate the perpetrators. The attack is part of a series of violent incidents in Balochistan, with similar attacks targeting Punjab residents reported in Noshki, Kech, Barkhan, and Musakhail over the past year.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti condemned the attack as an act of terrorism, vowing decisive action against the perpetrators. Sharif promised to confront terrorism with full force, while Bugti called the targeting of civilians based on their identity an “unforgivable crime.” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also pledged to pursue the attackers relentlessly. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned the violence, urging a political solution to Balochistan’s ongoing issues.
Security forces have suspended traffic on the N-70 highway and launched a large-scale search operation to apprehend the attackers, who fired on the buses to prevent escapes during the abduction.
