WANA: Six labourers working on the construction of a police station near Wana, the main town of Lower Waziristan Tribal District, were killed in a brutal attack by unidentified militants on Thursday night, officials said.
According to the local administration, the labourers were sleeping in their tents at the construction site when a group of armed men stormed in and shot them at point-blank range. The assailants fled the scene after the attack.
The victims belonged to different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and had come to Lower Waziristan for work. Their bodies were shifted to the district headquarters hospital in Wana for identification and autopsy.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, but officials suspect it was carried out by militants opposed to the establishment of security forces' presence in the area.
Lower Waziristan, once a stronghold of the Taliban and other militant groups, has witnessed several attacks on security forces and civilians in recent months, despite the launch of a major military operation in 2014 to clear the region of terrorists.
The government has also initiated several development projects in the area to improve the living conditions of the local population and restore peace and stability.
