Islamabad, July 11, 2025: Unidentified armed men kidnapped at least nine passengers travelling to Punjab at the Sur-Dakai region, which is situated on Zhob and Loralai districts border of Balochistan. The passengers were reported kidnapped and killed on Thursday.
According to the Zhob Assistant Commissioner Naveed Alam, the victims were kidnapped forcefully, pulled out of two coaches that carried passengers and subsequently executed. The dead bodies are retrieved and in the process of transporting them to Rakhni to be sent back to their native town in Punjab.
Shahid Rind, a spokesman on behalf of the Balochistan government, confirmed the attack and blamed it on a militant group that was banned, which was working under the name of Fitna al Hindustan. The group is claimed to have executed synergistic attacks within Sur-Dakai, Mastung and Kakat in the same night.
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Officials said the armed attackers had blocked N-70 highway at Dab, which led to blocking the two coaches and got into them to check the identity cards of the passengers. They forced 10 people out of the vehicles, 7 of one coach and 3 of the other, out of their Punjab-related CNICs. One of the passengers who survived the abductions said he could hear gunshots shortly after the abduction.
After the incident, the coaches were permitted to leave by the attackers, but were fired upon to prevent resistance or escape. Security forces immediately shut down highway traffic and called out a mass search in the area to get the suspects and any other kidnapped people.
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Policemen have suspicions of ethnic profiling because passengers whose addresses were identified as of Punjab origin were deliberately selected. Later, the attack was claimed by a banned separatist group, the Balochistan Liberation Front.
According to a group, it has conducted the killings after taking control over the highway between Musakhail-Makhtar and Khajuri. This incident represents a morbid rise in targeted killings in Balochistan that has brought in to serious question safety of passengers and security of inter-provincial travel.
