QUETTA: At least five militants and an FC soldier were killed on Saturday in an alleged armed clash and a landmine explosion in Dera Bugti area.

The spokesman for the Baloch Republican Army, Sirbaz Baloch, claimed that five militants had been killed while security forces lost 19 men. He said 25 others were injured in clashes and the landmine blast.

Officials, however, said that no armed clash took place between security forces and militants in the area. They said that six soldiers were injured, two of them seriously, in a landmine explosion in the Marvi area.

‘An FC vehicle was blown up in the landmine blast,’ officials said.

According to reports reaching here, Hawaldar Mohammad Arif who was injured in the blast died of his injuries late in the evening.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Baloch Republican Army said: ‘We have destroyed three vehicles of security forces and damaged a helicopter.’

He identified the militants who were killed in the clash as Saifuddin Bugti, Ali Nawaz Bugti, Razi Bugti, Mosam Bugti and Mehmood. He said the clash took place when security forces were carrying out a search operation in the Marvi area after the landmine explosion.