Srinagar: At least 14 passengers were offloaded from a bus on the Makran Coastal Highway in Balochistan’s Ormara area and shot dead by unidentified assailants early on Thursday.

According to Balochistan Inspector General of Police Mohsin Hassan Butt, around 15-20 unidentified armed assailants in camouflage uniform reportedly stopped five or six buses travelling between Karachi and Gwadar.

In the Buzi Top area, between 12:30am and 1am, the gunmen stopped a bus, checked the identity cards of passengers and offloaded about 16 of them, the IGP said.

IGP Butt explained that it was a “targeted killing”. The victims were identified via their CNICs and shot at close range, he said.

At least 14 were shot dead, while two passengers managed to escape the massacre and made it to the nearest Levies checkpost. They were shifted to Ormara Hospital for treatment.

Levies and other law enforcement personnel reached the spot and launched an investigation into the incident. The bodies of the victims were recovered from Noor Baksh Hotel.

The motive behind the killings and the identity of the victims are yet to be ascertained.

A similar incident took place in Balochistan’s Mastung area in 2015, when armed men kidnapped about two dozen passengers from two Karachi-bound coaches and killed at least 19 of them in the mountainous area of Khad Kocha.

Within the past week, Balochistan saw a terror attack targeting the Hazara community in Quetta which left at least 20 killed, and a blast in Chaman which targeted security forces. (Dawn)