Armed men have allegedly abducted five passengers, including a Pakistan Customs official, after a passenger bus travelling from Quetta to Dalbandin broke down at Charsar in Balochistan’s Chagai district, sources said.
The abducted customs official was identified as Mohammad Ibrahim Domki, a resident of Jaffarabad district, who was travelling on the bus to report for duty.
According to sources, the armed men checked the passengers’ identity cards before taking Domki and four other passengers to an undisclosed location. Their whereabouts and current condition were not immediately known.
No one had claimed responsibility for the incident at the time of writing, and there was no immediate official statement from the authorities confirming the abductions.
The incident comes amid repeated reports of armed men stopping vehicles and targeting government personnel and commercial traffic along major highways in Balochistan.
On 21 July 2026, three excise officials were abducted at gunpoint after armed men attacked a temporary departmental checkpoint on the Dalbandin–Taftan Highway in Chagai district, according to police sources. The attackers reportedly took two official vehicles and weapons as well.
In a separate incident in August, armed men seized five commercial vehicles carrying goods at Charsar on the Quetta–Taftan Highway. Three vehicles were travelling towards Taftan from Quetta, while two were heading in the opposite direction.
Balochistan has also witnessed deadly abductions of passengers travelling on inter-district and inter-provincial routes. In July 2025, at least nine passengers were abducted and killed after armed men stopped two coaches in the Sur-Dakai area on the border between Zhob and Loralai districts. According to reports, the armed men checked passengers’ identity cards before taking several people away.
The motive behind the latest incident and whether the abducted individuals were specifically targeted because of their identities or occupations remained unclear.