PESHAWAR, Jan 9: At least 16 laborers were abducted by unidentified armed individuals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan on Thursday, according to local police.
The laborers, who were engaged in work on a government project, were taken from a vehicle while traveling to a construction site.
Subsequently, the assailants torched the vehicle in the Qabal Khel area.
No group has yet taken responsibility for the kidnapping.
The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operates in this region and has been implicated in similar abductions previously.
Established in 2007 as a coalition of various militant organizations, the TTP is believed to have ties with al-Qaeda and has been associated with numerous lethal attacks throughout Pakistan.
In a separate incident, a bomb disposal unit successfully defused a 25-kilogram explosive device discovered near the Mehboob Ziarat check-post in the Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The bomb was located on a route that a convoy of security forces was scheduled to traverse, as stated by local police. (PTI)
