Five Baloch militants killed in Dera Bugti

QUETTA: Five suspected members of a banned Baloch separatist group were killed in a gun battle with paramilitary troops in Dera Bugti on Sunday.

Frontier Corps (FC) spokesperson Khan Wassey said the paramilitary force launched an intelligence-based operation and killed five militants of the Baloch Republican Army (BRA).

He claimed that weapons and ammunition were also seized from the hideouts of the militants who, he said, were involved in sabotage, extortion and kidnapping for ransom cases.

Security forces have stepped up operations in the violence-wracked Balochistan province since the announcement of the National Action Plan against terrorism.

A low-key insurgency has been ongoing in Balochistan since 2004, which has become deadlier since the killing of Baloch chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti in a military operation in 2006.

Sunday’s raid came three days after the security forces killed eight militants, including a senior commander of the banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), in a gunfight in Sibi district. Two paramilitary soldiers also embraced martyrdom during the battle.

In a separate raid, the FC arrested three suspected militants from Quetta’s Sariab Road area and recovered weapons from them.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2016.