Unidentified gunmen riding a motorcycle today shot dead at least four labourers while they were working on a highway, which is part of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, in the restive Balochistan province. "The labourers were working on a CPEC-route road when they were targeted in Gawash area of Kharan District," the Express Tribune newspaper reported, quoting sources. The labourers died on the spot. They reportedly belonged to Ghotki area of Sindh. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. CPEC, an ambitious USD 46 billion project, will link the Pakistani city of Gwadar to China's Xinjiang via a vast network of highways and railways. The troubled Balochistan province rich in minerals and natural resources has been hit hard by sectarian violence, terrorist attacks, and separatists who claim there is corruption in the provincial government. In February, three personnel, including a Pakistan Army captain, were killed as a roadside bomb exploded near a security vehicle patrolling in Balochistan's Awaran district. Last year in August, the suicide attack on Quetta's Civil Hospital claimed at least 74 people, most of them lawyers.
