According to police, the gunmen offloaded the passengers from their buses and trucks and then shot them dead in the Rarrah Shim area of Musakhail.

Police said that the accused had also taken 13 passengers with them, adding that all the deceased belonged to different areas of Punjab.

Police also told the media that the gunmen had blocked the highway and set 24 vehicles on fire. They included two cars, six trucks, 10 Mazdas, four pick-up vans and two other vans.

The Frontier Corps (FC) officials and policemen shifted the bodies of the deceased to a local hospital. Police said that they had launched a probe into the gruesome incident.

President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi vehemently condemned the incident.