A Pakistani police official said on Saturday that police are searching for militants who killed 8 people after abducting them from a bus on a highway in the southwest of the country. Earlier, the same attackers killed two people and injured six in an attack on another vehicle they forced to stop.
The police official stated that the kidnapping took place on Friday in the province of Balochistan, which has long been a theater for separatist insurgents fighting for independence, according to the Associated Press. Police Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Musakhail said that the militants set up an ambush, stopped the bus, checked the passengers' identification cards, and then took 8 people with them, all from the eastern Punjab province, and fled to the mountains.
Later, police recovered eight bodies from underneath a bridge about 5 kilometers from the highway. Earlier on Friday, the same militants opened fire on a vehicle that failed to stop during their blockade, resulting in the death of two people and injuries to six others. Musakhail stated that the search for the perpetrators is ongoing.
