Seven workers shot dead near Pakistan's Gwadar port

Gunmen shot and killed seven workers near southwestern Pakistan's Gwadar port early on Thursday, police said.

Police official Mohsin Ali said the gunmen stormed into a house some 25 km (15 miles) east of the port city and shot and killed the workers in their sleep.

The official said the dead and injured individuals used to work in a barbershop in the area and belonged to district Khanewal in Punjab.

The port city is located in the troubled southwestern Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

No one has claimed responsibility.

Balochistan chief minister Sarfraz Bugti condemned the killing and sought a report on the matter

The home minister of the province, Mir Zia Ullah Langau, has ordered an investigation and termed it “open terrorism”.

This attack comes at least three weeks after unidentified assailants gunned down 11 people in separate terror incidents in the Nushki district of Balochistan.

Baloch separatist militants have in the past targeted workers from eastern Punjab province, like the ones in the latest shooting.

Last month, the Baloch Liberation Army claimed the killing of nine workers from Punjab province, who were abducted and then shot at close range after gunmen stopped a bus.

The separatists have long been fighting the government to demand a greater share of the mineral-rich province's natural resources.

Gwadar is the site of several Beijing-backed projects under the $65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor investment as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. (Agencies)