Summary The passengers were abducted from the buses moving from Quetta to Rajnpur and Sadiqabad.
QUETTA (Web desk) – At least thirteen passengers who were kidnapped from Machh area were found dead today (Tuesday) in the mountains in Bolan district.
The gunmen, dressed in the uniform of security forces, carried out Tuesday s attack in the Mach area of Balochistan province.
They kidnapped 23 passengers from different buses and security forces personnel after blocking the road, with 14 of them being killed in the attack.
Mach is in the Bolan district of Balochistan, about 70km from Quetta, the provincial capital.
"Miscreants blocked the road in two places. First they took away five FC [paramilitary] men from an FC patrol vehicle, tied them up and snatched their walkie-talkies and weapons," provincial home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told the AFP news agency.
The attacker then stopped four buses and took away the 23 people. Nine of them, including six security forces personnel, were then released, Durrani told Al Jazeera.
When security forces personnel confronted the attackers, the rebels fired off a rocket that killed one security officer, Durrani said.
"Then they lined them up in the mountains and killed 13 [of the people kidnapped]," added Durrani. Local official, Kashif Nabi, confirmed the incident and said the bodies had been recovered.
"We are making arrangements to bring them to Quetta," he said.
Authorities would be launching a "special operation" in response to Tuesday s raid, the official said.
Violence in Balochistan has been particularly intense since the killing of Akbar Bugti, a Baloch separatist leader who was previously part of the government in 2006.
