Pitched battle: 15 FC soldiers killed in Quetta ambush

Banned outfit Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack. PHOTO: REUTERS/ FILE

Banned outfit Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was a ‘reaction’ to the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti’s granddaughter and great granddaughter in Karachi in the early hours of Monday.

The exchange of fire between the FC and Baloch insurgents, which took place late Tuesday night, lasted for more than five hours. The soldiers were responsible for guarding coalmines.

“Assailants armed with sophisticated and small weapons opened fire at security personnel deployed at four FC check posts. A convoy of Frontier Corps was sent immediately for aid, but was also attacked with a remote controlled device,” the spokesperson of the FC said, while confirming the death toll.

“Evidence indicates that this deadly attack was carried out on the directives of Mir Hairbyar Marri, who is in self exile in Europe. The FC will take stern action against him,” according to a press release issued by the FC.

The injured were shifted to a hospital in Quetta, where the condition of most of them is stated to be stable.

The spokesperson said that the insurgent casualties are yet to be ascertained.

According to sources, security forces launched a massive search in the area following the incident. As many as seven bodies of unidentified men were recovered from the area, sources added.

A spokesperson of the BLA, who introduced himself as “Mirak Baloch”, said that his organisation had carried out the attack and claimed that over 30 security personnel had been killed.

“It is a reaction to the killing of the granddaughter and great granddaughter of Nawab Akbar Bugti in Karachi,” he told the local media from an unspecified location.

FC Inspector General Major General Ubaidullah Khan reacted strongly to the deadly attack, saying that the FC will take all necessary steps to bring peace in Balochistan.

“The elements destabilising the region at the behest of enemy countries will fail to achieve their objective,” he said.

The FC had set up eight check posts in the 26 kilometre-long area in Margat and Pir Ismail Ziarat coalmines on the outskirts of Quetta. “It was the same area from where four officials of the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC) were kidnapped,” an FC spokesman said.

This is the third deadly attack on security forces by Baloch insurgents in the past two months.  Earlier, 28 security personnel were killed near the Kech district and Chamalang. The BLA had claimed responsibility for the Chamalang attack, while the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) took credit for the attack in Kech.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2012.