ISLAMABAD: Three soldiers were killed in an attack on a security forces’ check-post in southwest Pakistan, the Pakistani military said on Saturday, the latest in a string of attacks in the Balochistan province.
The militants targeted the check-post in Marget area of the province early Saturday morning, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
The post had recently been established to help check extortion attempts targeting coal mines in the vicinity.
“Troops on the post retaliated readily to the fire raid thereby, pushing back the terrorists. However, in the ensuing heavy exchange of fire three soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom),” the ISPR said in a statement.
The exchange of fire left one militant dead, it added.
Security forces have identified the militants’ hideout in nearby mountains in the rugged area and launched a sanitization operation in the vicinity, according to the statement.
“Currently, the operation is progressing well and security forces are maintaining pressure to deny terrorists escape from the area,” the ISPR added.
The attack came a day suicide attack on top leader of a prominent Pakistani religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), in Balochistan’s Zhob district. JI chief Sirajul Haq survived the attack, though at least seven people were injured in the explosion, a JI member confirmed on Friday.
Also on Friday, a policeman guarding a team of anti-polio vaccinators was gunned down in the same province.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the recent attacks in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province in terms of area, which has long been the site of a low-level insurgency by separatist groups who seek independence from the central government in Islamabad.
The separatists say they are fighting what they see as unfair exploitation of the province’s wealth by the federation. The Pakistani state denies it.
Earlier this month, six soldiers and a civilian were killed in a militant attack on a paramilitary compound in Balochistan.
Pakistan forces retook the Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary camp in Muslim Bagh area of Balochistan, killing six assailants and rescuing three families taken hostage at a residential block after more than 24 hours.
