QUETTA, Jan 31: A Frontier Corps solider was killed and four people were injured in two landmine explosions in Pirkoh and Kahan areas while heavy fighting was reported between tribesmen and security forces in Dera Bugti on Tuesday.
Official sources said that an FC vehicle was blown up when it hit a landmine planted in Pathar Nullah area near the Pirkoh gas field. Soldier Sanaullah died and two other FC men — Mohammed Iqbal and Shakeel Ahmed — were injured.
“We have lost one FC soldier in the anti-tank mine blast,” the district coordination officer of Dera Bugti said and added that the FC personnel were present in the area in connection with the repair of a water supply pipeline.
A report said that two people travelling on a pick-up were seriously wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside landmine in Kahan area of the Kohlu district.
The injured were admitted to a hospital.
Sources said that security forces defused another landmine that was planted in the same area.
Meanwhile, heavy fighting was reported in Dera Bugti between security forces and Bugti tribesmen. The firing erupted at around 11am and continued till evening.
“Armed tribesmen are lobbing rockets and mortar shells at the Frontier Corps fort in Dera Bugti town,” a senior official of the Dera Bugti administration said. Several government buildings were damaged in attacks, he added.
Sources said that several rockets landed and exploded near the FC fort located in Dera Bugti. The FC personnel took positions at different places and returned fire.
The Jamhoori Watan Party sources alleged that the FC personnel perched on hilltops were firing rockets at civilian population.
“Yes, heavy fighting continued in Dera Bugti till late evening, claiming a number of lives,” sources said.
JWP secretary-general Agha Shahid Bugti informed said that three Bugti tribesmen were killed and another was injured on Tuesday.
Official sources denied the FC was targeting the civilian population.
Other sources said that tribesmen had fired dozens of rockets at the FC bases and check-posts in different parts of Kohlu, Kahan and Loti.
A convoy of the Oil and Gas Development Corporation going to Loti gas field from Kashmor also came under a rocket attack.
“At least half a dozen rockets were fired at the convoy from mountains,” official sources said, adding the convoy passed safely.
Meanwhile, the FC personnel arrested five suspects at Musakhel area and recovered arms and ammunition from their possession.
Six FC men have been killed so far and over a dozen others injured in landmine explosions in the Kohlu and Dera Bugti districts during the past one-and-a-half months.
