Unidentified gunmen shot dead at least nine people hailing from Punjab after abducting them from a passenger bus in Noshki, officials said. Another attack on a separate vehicle killed one person and injured four, Dawn reported.

"About 10-12 gunmen blockaded the Quetta-Taftan Highway N-40 in the vicinity of Sultan Charhai near Noshki and abducted nine passengers from a bus," Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Musakhel told Dawn.com. According to the media outlet gunmen halted a bus bound for Taftan, checking the identity cards of passengers before abducting and subsequently killing them, he added.

DawnNewsTV reported that the bodies of the abducted passengers were found under a bridge nearby. It's unclear whether their belongings were taken. According to Noshki Station House Officer Asad Mengal, the nine victims hailed from Punjab province.

In another incident on the same highway, they opened fire on a car when it did not stop due to which one person was killed and four others were wounded. The casualties occurred because the vehicle overturned, Station House Officer (SHO) said, as per Dawn.

One of the car's passengers was a brother of Provincial Assembly member Ghulam Dastgir Badini, the SHO added. Dawn.com's correspondent was able to confirm that both attacks were carried out at the same blockade.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack and sought a report into the incident, according to Radio Pakistan. He expressed his condolences to the victims' families, saying: "We stand with the bereaved families in this hour of grief."

The premier said the perpetrators of this incident of terrorism and their facilitators will be punished. He also reaffirmed his commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the root.

Meanwhile, at least three children were killed on the spot and one injured in a landmine explosion in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday, police said. The tragic incident occurred in Wanna town of the tribal South Waziristan district on the third day of Eid.

The children were on their way to watch a volleyball match between two local teams in the Mandokai area when one of them stepped on a landmine triggering a huge blast, a district police officer said. Three children died on the spot and one was critically injured. The injured child was provided immediate treatment at a local hospital before being shifted to a district hospital in Dera Ismail Khan.