The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has strongly condemned the brutal murder of at least 14 people near Ormara, Balochistan – including 11 security personnel – who were shot dead by gunmen while traveling from Karachi to Gwadar. The HRCP said in a statement on Friday that it was “shocked at the calculated way in which these passengers were identified by their identity cards, forcibly offloaded from buses by gunmen impersonating security personnel, and killed in cold blood”. It said the three organisations that claimed responsibility for the attack had openly stated that they were targeting security personnel, which was indicated that militancy and wanton violence had not been rooted out of Balochistan, despite the province being heavily militarised for so long. “It is not enough that these organisations are banned or that the state has expressed its outrage and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice. Nor is it acceptable to mark this down to what the provincial home minister has termed ‘external elements’,” read the statement. The commission urged the state and all political parties in Balochistan to take a united and coherent stand to condemn militant violence under any circumstances, and to “protect and promote the political process as the only legitimate means of ensuring that all citizens and residents of the province are given their due rights”.