QUETTA: Gunmen targeted a security check post and killed four members of the Levies paramilitary force in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday.

The attack targeted the Samand post located some 20 kilometers from Khuzdar city in wee hours of Saturday, according to Deputy Commissioner Yasir Iqbal Dashti. Four Levies men were killed as a result of an intense exchange of gunfire.

The Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack. The group mainly operates in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but it has also maintained presence in Balochistan.

“The attackers managed to flee by taking advantage of the dark and the bodies of the slain troops were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital Khuzdar,” Dashti told Arab News.

“Security forces have surrounded the area and a hunt for the attackers is underway.”

Pakistan is battling twin insurgencies: one led my religiously motivated groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the other by ethno-nationalist Baloch separatist groups in Balochistan.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti denounced the attack on Levies post, warning of action against militants.

“The government will expedite action against elements spoiling peace,” Bugti said in a statement, extending his sympathies to families of slain troops.

In Jan., dozens of fighters of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group launched a brazen attack on Khuzdar’s Zehri town and seized control of its main market for hours. The militants had set government buildings ablaze and snatched Levies’ vehicles and weapons.

This month, gunmen killed three people, including two barbers from the eastern Punjab province who they see as “outsiders,” and set a police vehicle ablaze in Balochistan’s Lasbela district, officials said.

The separatists accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources, such as gold and copper, and accuse foreigners and people from other province of backing the Pakistani state. Successive Pakistani governments have denied the allegations and said they only worked for the uplift of the region and its people.