QUETTA, March 30: A security man was killed and four others were injured in a gunbattle between security forces and militants in the Lanjo Sighari area of Dera Bugti, on the Punjab-Balochistan border on Friday.

Inter-Services Public Relation director-general Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad confirmed the death of Frontier Corps soldier Ehsanullah. Nazir Ahmad, Mohammad Younus, Nisar Ahmad and Mohammad Azmat, also of the FC, were injured and were taken to the CMH in Quetta.

According to sources, militants also suffered casualties in the heavy fighting which lasted for several hours. They said security forces had arrested 60 militants, five of them in injured condition.

They said the security forces had launched a search operation in Lanjo Sighari near RD-109 of Pat Feeder, after receiving information about presence of camps of militants in the village.

When security personnel reached the village, militants opened fire on them. The security men retaliated and later cordoned off the area.

“The security forces and militants used heavy weapons, including rockets, mortar shells and machine guns,” the sources said, adding that over a dozen militants had been killed in the fighting. However, it was not officially confirmed.

Nawabzada Baramdagh Bugti, a grandson of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, claimed that over 12 Bugti tribesmen, including women and children, were killed in the fighting in Lanjo Sighari.

He told journalists in Quetta that security forces from Sindh and Punjab also took part in the operation in which helicopters were used for bombing.