Around 1000 Pakistani paramilitary troops backed by helicopters are battling separatists in the country's restive southwest, with the rebel death toll rising to 13 on the second day of fighting.
The clash with separatists began on Wednesday in the area of a gasfield in Pirkoh, about 245 kilometres southeast of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.
"Security forces have killed at least 13 miscreants who were hiding in the gasfield when they refused to surrender," Manzoor Ahmed, a spokesman for Frontier Corps, said.
There was no loss on the security forces' side, he added.
Provincial Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti said the militants were members of the Baluchistan Republican Army.
"We have evidence that they were members of the BRA and were miscreants," he said.
"We took this action to set up peace in the region and we will act against the miscreants wherever we get an information about them," he added.
Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest but least developed and most sparsely populated province, has been afflicted for decades by a separatist insurgency that was revived in 2004.
Share
