Pakistan, May 15 -- On Tuesday, four bodies lay sprawled near Galangoor, a barren stretch outside Nushki. The dead were neither soldiers nor spies. They were truck drivers. Men who navigated Pakistan's roads to earn a living, not to make headlines. Three days earlier, they had been abducted while transporting LPG tankers. When their corpses were found, bullet wounds told the rest.

They were executed for who they were. Punjabis. Read that again and again until the tragedy sets in.

The horror was not unfamiliar. From Duki to Turbat, the same playbook has unfolded dozens of times. Militants ambush civilians, identify them by province, and shoot them as symbols of a federation they oppose. No ransom demands. Just cold-blooded murder, filmed...