QUETTA: Pakistani paramilitary troops said they launched a military operation yesterday in the insurgency-racked southwestern province of Baluchistan and killed some 40 rebels.
The toll could not be independently verified.
The resource-rich province is home to a long-running separatist conflict that was revived in 2004, with nationalists seeking to stop what they see as the exploitation of the region’s natural resources and alleged rights abuses.
The Frontier Corps said in a statement the operation began early yesterday in the Farod area of Kalat district, around 300 kilometres southwest of the provincial capital Quetta in Pakistan.
“Around 40 insurgents belonging to the Baluch Republican Army (BRA) and Baluch Liberation Army (BLA) were killed during the operation,” it said.
“Six vehicles were also destroyed during the operation and it is still going on.”
Security and rebel accounts of clashes often differ greatly and spokesmen for the two separatist groups have so far declined to comment.
Some local residents said a military helicopter had been shot down, but the Frontier Corps denied the reports.
It said the helicopter made an emergency landing on a road in Kalat and the pilot and co-pilot were safe.
The fighting in Baluchistan attracts little public attention, unlike the clashes with the Pakistani Taliban in the northwest.
AFP
