Eight laborers have been abducted and murdered by suspected Baluch separatists in southwestern Baluchistan province, Pakistan police have said.

The group, from northeastern Punjab province, had been working at a poultry farm in Sakran district of Baluchistan for several months and were seized on Wednesday along with a Baluch colleague who later was released, district police chief Bashir Brohi said.

The bodies of the eight were found in a suburban area of the district on Sunday morning.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the murders, but security agencies said they suspected that Baluch separatist groups who have been involved in the killings of settlers from Punjab -- the country's richest and largest province -- were behind the deaths.

Baluch separatists are fighting government forces for what they say is the liberation of Baluchistan, which they argue was forcibly incorporated into Pakistan during its separation from India in 1947.

Non-Baluchi settlers, especially Punjabis, have been targeted as a majority of army troops belong to Punjab province.

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