QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani official says gunmen have killed 10 laborers who were working on a road project in the country’s southwest

Local police official Abdul Salam says the attack took place Saturday near the recently completed Gwadar port in Baluchistan province, which was built with Chinese funding. Mineral-rich Balochistan, where Gwader is located, has been plagued for decades by a separatist insurgency and sectarian killings and gunmen have previously targeted labourers seen as outsiders in the region. The incident, which came some 20 kilometres from the main Gwadar city, was also confirmed by Gwadar Deputy Commissioner Naeem Bazai, who said that all the workers were from Naushahro Feroze district of Sindh. The attack has been claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an armed separatist group that has been fighting for an independent homeland for the ethnic Baloch. The roads the labourers were working on are not specific CPEC-funded projects, but they are part of a network of connecting roads that are part of the corridor. A greater push towards peace and development by Pakistani authorities has reduced the violence considerably in recent years. The push includes starting work on a massive Chinese infrastructure project – the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – which gives Beijing a route to the Arabian Sea through Balochistan that forms the southern hub of CPEC.
Gunmen open fire on construction workers at Gwadar Port, Pakistan, killing at least 10 people. The Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.