QUETTA, Aug 14: Two activists of the Baloch National Movement (BNM) and Baloch Students Organisation (BSO-Azad) were killed in an encounter with security forces in Turbat on Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the Frontier Corps.

He said in a statement that militants attacked a checkpost of FC near Turbat by rockets. After the attack FC personnel raided a house in the Ab Sar area in the outskirts of Turbat town, but armed men present in the house opened fire on them. The personnel returned fire and killed two men, the spokesman added.

The FC claimed to have taken two suspects into custody and seized two sub-machine guns and a large number of rounds from the house.

The FC’s claim, however, was rejected by Baloch National Front’s (BNF) information secretary Abdul Manan Baloch who claimed that the slain activists were innocent people.

He identified the deceased as Imdad Baloch, a leader of BNM, and Jahangir Baloch, central secretary general of BSO-Azad.

Talking to reporters at the Quetta Press Club on phone from Turbat, Manan Baloch claimed that the FC raided Imdad Baloch’s house on the order of the provincial government.

He said the FC personnel had taken away with them two people, including the father of Imdad Baloch who had been injured by the personnel’s firing.

The BNF leader announced three-day mourning in the province in protest against the killing.

Meanwhile, five people were killed in a gun-battle with FC personnel in Bolan district on Tuesday night.

FC officials claimed that the five men were armed and wanted to blow up the main railway line in the Kumri bridge area of Bolan district.

They said when FC personnel reached the area after receiving information the armed men opened fire on them and in return fire the personnel killed them. The personnel found a huge quantity of explosives and arms from the site.