QUETTA, Jan 8: Paramilitary forces launched a crackdown on armed men in the coalmine area of Margat in Bolan district on Sunday after Saturday’s rocket attack on Mach town. Reports of heavy gunfire have been received from the area. According to reports, security forces cordoned off the Margat area on Saturday night, deploying more personnel of Frontier Corps, and conducted a search operation against elements believed to be involved in lobbing rockets on FC base camps in Bolan district.

Official sources said that the forces were taking action against outlaws creating law and order situation in the area.

Reports say that armed men have taken positions on the mountains and have engaged security forces in a battle, using rockets and other heavy weapons.

Meerak Baloch, a spokesman for the Baloch Liberation Army, claimed that five women and children had been seriously injured in the firing by the forces.

He said that the forces had sealed the area and were not allowing the shifting of those injured to hospitals. However, official sources did not confirm any causality so far.

Meanwhile, two bomb explosions were reported in Sibi and Wadh area of Khuzdar district.

Official sources said that a powerful bomb went off in Sibi that was planted under a pushcart parked along Chakar Khan Road.

Windowpanes of nearby houses and government buildings were smashed due to powerful explosion that caused panic among the area people.

Police said that another bomb was recovered in the area and defused by bomb disposal squad.

Yet another bomb exploded in Wadh, the native town of Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Attaullah Mengal.

The bomb had been planted behind a police station a wall of which was destroyed in the blast, police sources said.

According to another report, the FC personnel recovered and defused an anti-personnel mine in the Nushki area.