Gunmen kill 3 of 6 abducted in Pakistan

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QUETTA, Pakistan, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Gunmen abducted six bus passengers and killed three of them, one a local journalist, in Pakistan's Balochistan province, officials said.

The Dawn newspaper, quoting the officials and sources, said the bus traveling from the provincial capital of Quetta to neighboring Punjab province was stopped on a highway Thursday night near Bolan district by a group of armed men, who then kidnapped the passengers.

A local official was quoted as saying the journalist with a Quetta newspaper and two others were gunned down when they tried to escape.

"The armed men took the [other] three other passengers with them," the official told the newspaper.

The report said a trucker driving on the highway was injured in the shootings.

Authorities recovered the bodies of the three and took the injured truck driver to a local hospital, the report said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shootings.