Pakistan: 7 workers shot dead in their sleep in Balochistan

Unidentified gunmen shot and killed at least seven workers in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan, police said on Thursday.

According to police official Mohsin Ali, gunmen stormed into a house some 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of the port city of Gwadar, and shot the workers while they were asleep.

The coastal town of Gwadar is the site of several Beijing-backed projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor investment, which is part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The victims, who were from the central Pakistani province of Punjab, were running a barber shop, Ali said.

However, police said they believed the attack was not related to their jobs. Previous attacks claimed by the Pakistani Taliban near the Afghan border in the north were believed to have been motivated by a militant ban on Western-style beard trimming and haircuts.