ISLAMABAD, 5 February 2006 — Hundreds of rockets were fired by tribal militants at the fort of Bhambore Rifles of the Balochistan Frontier Corps in Dera Bugti, hometown of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti who himself lives in a cave and masterminds attacks on securitymen and vital installations.
The rockets hit a gas field and paramilitary base in the troubled southwest, disrupting gas supplies and wounding one soldier, an official said yesterday.
The rocket blitz came late on Friday and yesterday.
“The situation is very tense in Dera Bugti,” Abdul Samad Lasi, the town’s top administrative official told reporters.
The rebels also blew up a gas pipeline near the town, 450 km (280 miles) east of Quetta, capital of the southwestern province of Balochistan.
Lasi said militants had fired up to 250 missiles, most of them 107 mm rockets which have a range of about 10 km (six miles).
Most were fired at a sprawling base of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Dera Bugti, and the nearby Loti Gas Field, run by the state-owned Oil and Gas Development Co. Ltd. (OGDCL). One soldier was wounded and several buildings in the base were damaged, he said.
Baloch militants have been waging a low-key insurgency for decades for more autonomy and benefits from the oil and gas in their province, the poorest of the four Pakistani provinces.
They have intensified attacks in recent years. In January 2005, the rebels launched a major attack on Pakistan’s largest gas field at Sui area, killing 15 people and disrupting fuel supplies to industry for more than a week.
Lasi said about two million cubic feet per day gas supplies would be affected from the attack. The gas field produces 35 million cubic feet gas per day. Officials of OGDCL were not available for comment.
The latest attack by the militants came as President Pervez Musharraf said renegade tribal leaders had to disband their “private militias.”
“We will not let them florish and challenge the writ of the government. Writ of the government will be established in Balochistan,” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Musharraf as saying on Friday.
The Pakistani military launched its latest crackdown against militants in Balochistan after a rocket attack on Dec. 14 during a visit by Musharraf to the town of Kohlu.
Baloch nationalists say almost 200 people have been killed. The government has not commented on casualties but analysts say the figure given by the nationalists could be exaggerated.
Two Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Blast Near Afghan Border
Two Pakistani soldiers were killed and one seriously injured yesterday when suspected militants detonated an explosive device in the rugged tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
The roadside device went off as a convoy of paramilitary Frontier Corps was returning to Wana, the headquarters of the South Waziristan region where troops are engaged in a hunt for Al-Qaeda linked militants, a security official said.
The blast in Zarmilan town some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Wana, killed one soldier on the spot and seriously injured two others, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
One of the wounded soldiers later died in the hospital, officials said.
Zarmilan, located close to the Afghan border faces the troubled eastern Afghan province of Paktika.
Militants also blew up a Pakistani check post in the area late Friday, another official said yesterday.
Armed men entered the check post in Musanika town some three kilometers from the Afghan border, briefly held its tribal police staff hostage and blew up the post, the official said.
— Additional input from agencies
