QUETTA: Police recovered six bullet-riddled bodies from Pakistan’s southwestern Mastung district on Sunday, an official said, shedding the spotlight on one of Balochistan’s most troubled districts where militants frequently attack law enforcers and civilians.

The bodies were found lying on the highway in a deserted location in Dato, an area in Mastung district located around 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the provincial capital of Quetta, Station House Officer Mastung Abdul Rauf said.

He said residents of the area informed police that there were some bodies lying on the RCD highway, prompting them to arrive on the scene.

“Police teams have reached the area and recovered six bullet-riddled bodies,” Rauf said. “They were shot by unknown armed men who dumped their bodies on the RCD highway.”

Rauf said the bodies were shifted to the Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Raisani Hospital for autopsy to ascertain their identities.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, armed militants have been carrying out attacks against Pakistani security forces, officials, civilians and transporters in Mastung over the last three months.

In July, a senior judge was killed along with his security guard in Mastung while his vehicle was passing through the area. The attack was claimed by ISKP, a regional Daesh affiliate.

A month later, four laborers were killed after an explosion hit an apple orchard in Khad Kocha, a mountainous area of Mastung, on Aug. 21. Balochistan government had imposed a curfew in Khud Kocha in July after multiple attacks in the area by militants, including one targeting a passenger bus.

Balochistan has been embroiled in a decades-long insurgency. Separatist militants accuse the state and military of usurping the province’s mineral resources and denying locals a share in them. Pakistan’s military and government deny the allegations.

Pakistani security forces launched counterterror operations in Balochistan this week, with the military saying that it killed 48 militants across the province over the past 48 to 72 hours.

The counterterror operations were carried out in Mastung, Quetta, Kalat and Sibi districts against ethnic Baloch separatists and Pakistani Taliban militants, the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said on Friday.

Islamabad accuses New Delhi of arming and funding separatist militants, a charge India denies. Pakistan also blames Afghanistan for supporting these militant groups, saying that it provides them sanctuaries and facilitates them in carrying out attacks against Pakistani law enforcers. Kabul rejects these allegations.