ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan army said on Thursday two soldiers were killed when militants attacked a security post in the southwestern Balochistan province along the border with Iran.
No group has as yet claimed responsibility for the attack but the Baloch Liberation Army and other separatist groups in the volatile province often launch attacks on security forces. The groups call for complete independence for Balochistan, an arid mountainous province that is Pakistan’s largest by territory but smallest by population and most backward in terms of almost all social and development indicators.
“A group of terrorists targeted a security forces’ post through fire in Singwan Area (Dist Kech) of Balochistan along Pakistan-Iran Border,” the Pakistan army said in a statement.
“Heavy fire exchange ensued. Security forces pushed back the terrorists successfully.”
However, two soldiers were killed in the fire exchange.
“Security forces have launched an immediate sanitization operation in the area and are in communication with Iranian authorities across as well to deny terrorists any opportunity to escape,” the army said.
Earlier this month, five Iranian border guards were killed in a clash with an unknown armed group trying to enter the country near the Pakistani border. The incident occurred just two days after top leaders of Pakistan and Iran inaugurated the first border market as relations warm between the two countries.
Security concerns have risen in Pakistan since last November after peace talks collapsed between the government and the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, which unilaterally called off a tenuous cease-fire and vowed to increase attacks on security forces.
