Islamabad , Pakistan ( CNN ) -- Gunmen shot and killed nine prison guards in eastern Pakistan on Thursday after gaining entry to a building where they were staying , officials said . Thirty-five prison guards were in the building in the city of Lahore when four to six gunmen entered , said Muhammad Rashid , a Lahore police official . The guards , most of them from the volatile northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , were in Lahore for training , Rashid said . Habib Ur Rehman , the police chief of Punjab province , said the attack killed nine prison guards . Lahore is the province 's capital . Shortly afterward , the Taliban claimed responsibility for the act . Ihsanullah Ihsan , a spokesman for the group , said the attack was meant to send a message that no area of the country is outside Taliban reach . Security forces in Pakistan are often the targets of violence , with militant groups active in different parts of the country . In a separate attack Thursday , armed militants killed six coal miners and a doctor in southwestern Balochistan province five days after they kidnapped them , a senior government official said . `` All victims have received multiple bullets on their heads and chest , '' said Muhammad Hashim Ghilzai , the deputy commissioner of Quetta , the provincial capital . All seven were killed while in custody of the Balochistan Liberation Army , an insurgent group that has claimed responsibility for several bombings in the country , he said . The group demands Balochistan be made a separate independent state free from Pakistan 's rule . Ghilzai said militants abducted the coal miners on their way back to the city from a private coal company . An investigation is under way .
NEW : Militants kill six coal miners and a doctor in Baluchistan province . The Taliban claims responsibility for an attack on prison guards in Lahore . - Pakistan says it has arrested two militants who were planning to carry out attacks against the country's nuclear power plants.