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QUETTA, Jan 20: Reports of exchanges of heavy fire between security forces and tribesmen around Dera Bugti were received here on Friday. Jamhoori Watan Party spokesman Agha Shahid Hasan Bugti claimed that nine people were killed and 31 others injured in shelling on the town by security forces.
He said paramilitary forces started massive shelling on the town at 11.30am, in which six children, two women and a man were killed and 23 others seriously wounded. He said shelling on Hindu Mallah on Thursday night had left six children and two women injured.
The spokesman said shelling was continuing till evening and two jets had carried out an attack near the town.
Dera Bugti District Coordination Officer Abdul Samad Lasi said government buildings, a television booster and a telephone exchange were badly damaged in the exchange of fire in the area.
“Miscreants fired four rockets on my house in Sui. One of them fell 15 yards away from my house but did not explode,” he told this correspondent.
He alleged that armed supporters of Nawab Akbar Bugti had fired the rockets from Sui Colony and escaped.
He said that security forces concentrated on protecting national installations and roads and resorted to firing only to defend themselves.
BOMB BLASTS: Four bombs exploded in other areas of the province.
A three-foot portion of the Quetta-Zahidan railway tracks was damaged in an explosion near the Ahmedwal railway station after a train from Zahidan had passed. A railway official said the tracks would be repaired on Saturday.
Railway tracks near Mach were damaged in an explosion but later repaired.
According to a Wadh police official, a device exploded in the wee hours of Friday damaging a bridge on the Quetta-Karachi highway, but traffic was not affected.
Two rockets landed a few yards away from a Frontier Corps checkpoint near Wadh.
A bomb exploded in a sweetmeat shop in Nushki bazaar.
