Eighteen people including 12 suspected tribal militants and six security personnel have been killed in violence-wracked Balochistan since Wednesday. Pakistani security forces shot dead 12 suspected tribal militants on Wednesday after a roadside bomb blast killed three soldiers, a government official said. The incidents near the Pirkoh gasfield, about 400 kilometres southeast of Quetta, were the bloodiest for months to rock the increasingly volatile province.The three paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers died and three were wounded when their vehicle carrying food for the gasfield was hit by a remote controlled bomb, District Coordination Officer Abdul Samad Lasi said. Shortly afterwards dozens of armed insurgents attacked the gasfield, which is near Dera Bugti, and soldiers retaliated, killing 12 miscreants, Lasi said. However, the Jamhoori Watan Party rejected the governmentâs account of the incident. Party secretary general Agha Shahid Bugti denied that any tribesmen were killed in the clash, saying that 12 civilians who were arrested after the blast in Pirkoh were âlater killed in the custody of the paramilitary forcesâ.
He said 16 civilians also died in shelling and rocket attacks by paramilitary forces late on Tuesday in Dera Bugti town and Loti area. Separately, a rocket fired by suspected tribal militants struck a camp housing soldiers at Margat Indus, a coal mining area about 75 kilometres east of Quetta, killing three, security officials said on Friday. Pakistani military officials were not immediately available for comment. The BLA claimed responsibility for the attack.