QUETTA, April 28: Heavy firing was reported from the village of Jalwala of Dera Bugti district late on Wednesday night. The firing continued for several hours, official sources confirmed. However, no casualty was reported. The village is about 70 km north of the Dera Bugti township.

There are conflicting reports about the incident. While Bugti tribe sources accused the security forces deployed in the area of opening the fire and using heavy weapons.

“Security forces opened fire without any reason”, they said and added that FC personnel had established pickets in the area increasing tension. They said that around 400 FC personnel had been deployed in the area.

However, Frontier Corps sources denied any involvement of FC personnel in the firing and said that it was a clash between two groups of the Bugti tribe. “Frontier Corps personnel have nothing to do with firing in Jalwala village”, FC spokesman Col Rizwan Malik said here on Thursday, adding that Bugti tribesmen had established bunkers in the hilly area of Washu.

He said that armed tribesmen had opened fire on the village of Jalwala where mostly people of Masoori Bugti, a clan of Bugti tribe, lived.

He claimed that around 150 families had left the village and taken refuge in Beaker area.