Pakistani forces kill 8 rebels linked to attacks

QUETTA, Pakistan, Aug 10, 2013 (AFP) - Pakistani security forces Saturday gunned down eight separatist rebels linked to attacks that killed 17 people this week in the restive southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said.

Provincial home secretary Akbar Durrani said six insurgents were killed while exchanging fire with paramilitary troops in the Mach area of Bolan district, 70 kilometres southeast of the provincial capital Quetta.

Durrani said the troops surrounded the rebels' hide-out and asked them to surrender but the insurgents opened fire.

He said the separatists were linked to an attack on Tuesday that killed 14 people including three security personnel after stopping vehicles at a fake checkpoint.

Meerak Baloch, a spokesman for the Baluch Liberation Army, had earlier claimed responsibility for the killings.

Two separatists were shot dead by paramilitaries in the neighbouring Mastung district, Durrani added, where a bomb Wednesday killed a woman and two children at a market thronged by people shopping for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr.

The bodies of six insurgents were brought to Quetta, but so far nobody had claimed them, Durrani said.

Baluchistan is also a flashpoint for surging sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and Shiites, who account for around a fifth of the country's 180 million people.

Six insurgents were killed while exchanging fire with paramilitary troops in the Mach area of Bolan district