Militants kill 7 workers, kidnap 20 in southwestern Pakistan  

Balochistan province, Pakistan

Pakistani authorities said Sunday suspected insurgents killed at least seven workers and abducted 20 others at gunpoint in two attacks overnight in the country’s southwestern Balochistan province. The violence occurred in the Panjgur and Musakhail districts of the sparsely populated insurgency-hit province, which is rich in natural resources. Police said that gunmen attacked a home in Panjgur at around midnight Saturday, spraying its occupants with bullets before fleeing on motorcycles. They added that the gunfire wounded one person and that the victims were laborers from the eastern Punjab province. The second attack took place early Sunday when a group of armed men stormed a gas and oil exploration company’s site in Musakhail. Dheeraj Kalra, the local assistant police commissioner, told VOA by phone that the assailants opened fire, vandalized equipment, took 20 workers as hostages, and then escaped.