Four paramilitary soldiers killed in clash with militants in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan: Four Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed and two injured in a clash with militants in the southwestern province of Balochistan on Monday, the military said.

The incident happened in Loralai district, around 262 kilometres northeast of the provincial capital Quetta.

According to a statement issued by the military, the militants tried to attack a residential compound of the paramilitary troops when they were confronted at the entry point.

The exchange of fire led to the deaths of four soldiers and four attackers including a suicide bomber.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Baloch separatist groups and Islamist militants have attacked security forces in the province in the past.

Earlier in December, a Pakistani separatist wanted over an attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi in November was killed in a suicide blast in Afghanistan.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed that assault, labelling Beijing an ‘oppressor’ and ‘making it clear that China’s military expansionism on Baloch soil will not be tolerated’.

It had warned the Chinese to leave or ‘be prepared for continued attacks’.

The BLA is just one of the militant outfits operating in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and poorest province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran and is rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies. — AFP