QUETTA, Dec 5: Five militants and a soldier of Frontier Corps were killed in a gunbattle in the Pat Feeder Canal area of Nasirabad district on Thursday, official sources said. The fighting left an FC man injured.

They said the FC personnel had launched a search operation in the RD-238 Pat Feeder Canal area for militants involved in attacks on security forces.

“A gunfight started which continued for several hours and both sides used heavy automatic weapons,” the sources said, adding that the situation was not normal yet.

A spokesman for the Frontier Corps, Balochistan, said: “One FC soldier was killed and another injured, while five militants were…killed during the operation.”

He said a huge quantity of arms and ammunition being used by militants was seized.The injured FC man was brought to Quetta for treatment.

On Wednesday, three employees of Uch Power Plant were kidnapped from close to the area where the FC conducted the search operation on Thursday.

FC STANCE REJECTED: The Baloch Republican Party accused security forces of launching a massive military operation in different areas of Dera Bugti and Nasirabad districts on Thursday morning.

A BRP spokesman said dozens of armoured vehicles carrying security personnel had cordoned off many villages in the two districts, including Beti and RD-238.

The security forces opened fire on civilians and heavily bombarded the villages, destroying a large number of houses and setting some houses on fire, he alleged.

He said 11 members of a family were killed, including Riazat Bugti, son of Bagul Baloch, an activist of BRP; Kosagh Bugti, son of Warna Khan, who belongs to the Baloch Republican Students Organisation; Masso Bugti, son of Bakho Khan, and two sons and a grandson of Ali Dost Baloch.