10 Pak soldiers die in Baloch attack, landmine blast kills 4

ISLAMABAD: Ten Pakistani soldiers and a militant were killed in an overnight shootout on January 25-26 at a checkpost in Kech district of Balochistan, while a landmine blast on Friday in Dera Bhugti district left at least four members of a pro-government “peace force” dead and 10 wounded.

The military said in a brief statement that a hunt was launched after the Kech gunfight and three insurgents were rounded up. “The armed forces are determined to eliminate terrorists from our soil, no matter what the cost,” the army said.

Separatist group Balochistan Liberation Front responsibility for the attack and said one of its members died in the clash and the military lost 17 soldiers. The attack followed new militant outfit Baloch Nationalist Army’s (BNA) January 20 bombing in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, killing three people.

The restive southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, has been recording hundreds of casualties in separatist, sectarian and Islamist violence since 2004. In the past, Pakistan had blamed India for supporting Baloch separatists through the Western-backed government in Afghanistan, before the Taliban took over last year.

Police said Friday’s landmine explosion happened in the Mat area of Sui, a sub-district that supplies natural gas to most of Pakistan. Balochistan chief minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo said the victims were members of “Aman (peace) Force”.

Baloch separatists frequently target security forces, but attacks on pro-government people rarely occur in the volatile province.

Sarfraz Bhugti

, a senator of the pro-government Balochistan Awami Party, said “Baloch Republican Army terrorists” were behind the attack.

The Baloch insurgency started from Dera Bhugti when Nawab Akbar Bhugti, chief of the Bhugti tribe and former governor, asked former army chief and then president Gen. Pervez Musharraf to allow Baloch people to have control over resources in their province. Bhugti was killed in a military offensive.

Baloch separatists oppose the over $60bn China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) linking the Chinese province of Xingjian in the north with the strategically important coastal town of Gwadar in Balochistan. The CPEC launched in 2015 consists of rail, road, and energy projects and is part of the wider $1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China.

Militants had targeted Chinese engineers and workers. Thousands of Pakistani troops have been deployed in the region to check violence and protect CPEC projects.