Unknown men killed seven people travelling to Punjab in Balochistan’s Barkhan district on Tuesday.

The gunmen stopped a bus on the Barkhan-Dera Ghazi Khan Highway in Balochistan on Tuesday as it travelled from Quetta to Punjab.

Videos on social media showed shocked passengers in the bus revealing how the attackers identified passengers by their CNICs. They then forced the identified men off the bus, took them to the nearby hills and shot them.

According to officials, all seven men killed were of Punjabi origin.

The slain passengers were identified as Adnan Mustafa from Burewala, Muhammad Ashiq from Sheikhpura, Shaukat Ali from Faisalabad, Asim Ali from Mandi Bahauddin, Muhammad Ajmal from Lodhran and Muhammad Ishaq from Multan. The seventh passenger, Ashiq Hussain, had served as a DSP in Quetta.

The bodies of the slain passengers were shifted to the District Headquarter Hospital and later despatched to their hometowns.

According to officials, the attackers who stopped the bus were reported to be around 40 in number. However, eyewitnesses told BBC Urdu that the attackers numbered between 10 and 12. After the attack, the shooters managed to escape the scene.

The Baloch Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for the the seven targeted killings.

This is not the first instance of Punjab-bound travellers being identified and killed in Balochistan. At least 23 travellers were offloaded and shot in Musa Khel in August last year while seven Punjab-origin labourers were killed in Gwadar in May.