QUETTA: A tribal elder and local leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party was killed along with three companions in an ambush near Mastung late Sunday night.

Police said Sardarzada Mohammad Khan Ababki was going to Quetta from Mastung with some companions and guards in a pickup. When the vehicle reached the Wali Khan area on Quetta-Mastung road, armed men hiding on both sides of the road opened fire on the pick-up using automatic weapons.

As a result, Sardarzada Ababki and another person were killed on the spot and six others, including guards, were seriously injured.

Police and personnel of a security force rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and the injured to Nawab Raisani Memorial Hospital in Mastung. However, two of the injured could not survive as they had received multiple bullet injuries.

The remaining four injured were later shifted to the Trauma Centre of the Civil Hospital Quetta.

Deputy Commissioner of Mastung retired major Ilyas Karzai said that the armed men after firing at Mr Ababki`s vehicle escaped from the site. He said that security forces had launched a search operation in the area.

The cause of the killings could not be ascertained so far. However, it seems to be motivated by tribal enmity.

Hundreds of people belonging to the Ababki tribe reached the Mastung hospital after the incident.