QUETTA: Nine suspected militants, two of them leaders of a banned militant organisation, were killed in a gunbattle with security forces in Mashkay tehsil of Awaran district.

Home department’s officials said on Monday that personnel of Frontier Corps had been carrying out an intelligence-based search operation in an area of Mashkay when an exchange of fire took place with militants.

The gunbattle continued for hours in the mountainous area in which both sides used heavy weapons.

The officials said that at least nine suspected militants were killed and some others injured, adding that a large number of weapons was seized from militant hideouts. They claimed that those killed belonged to the banned Baloch Liberation Front.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2015

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