QUETTA: Unidentified gunmen this week kidnapped nine laborers from two separate construction sites in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, police and government officials said on Sunday, as security forces conduct search operations to recover them.

The first incident occurred on Saturday night in the mountainous district of Khuzdar, where armed men abducted workers from a water channel construction site.

“Six laborers working for a private construction company were kidnapped after armed men stormed a construction site of a water channel in Mola, a mountainous town in Khuzdar,” Senior Superintendent of Police Khuzdar Shahzad Umar Abbas told Arab News.

He said the laborers were from Sindh and Balochistan, adding that police teams have started search operations to recover the kidnapped laborers.

The second incident also took place during Saturday night when gunmen abducted three laborers from Dola river located around 12 kilometers from Barkhan city in Balochistan.