QUETTA: Paramilitary forces Sunday killed more than 10 alleged militants in violence-stricken Balochistan as part of a fresh operation to quell a long-running insurgency, officials said.
The operation in Dera Bugti district's Gandyari town, 250 kilometres (150 miles) southeast of the capital Quetta, came just three days after troops killed 30 suspected militants in the same area.
Officials said the town, close to the borders of Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab provinces, was the hub of the separatist movement carrying out attacks on trains, bridges and security forces.
“We can confirm that 10 militants of the outlawed Balochistan Republican Army (BRA) have been killed in an operation in Gandyari today,” Manzoor Ahmed, a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Balochistan, told AFP.
“The forces started operation against the BRA militants early in the morning after receiving information that they are hiding there,” Ahmed said.
The death toll could not be independently verified.
Resource-rich Balochistan is home to a long-running separatist conflict that was revived in 2004, with nationalists seeking to stop what they see as the exploitation of the region's natural resources and alleged rights abuses.
