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Coastguard Attacked in Gwadar

by AFP and Staff Report
AFP

AFP

Baloch Liberation Front gunmen killed at least seven officials and injured another seven in early morning attack.

Gunmen attacked a coastguard checkpost in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least seven officials and wounding seven others, officials said.

The incident happened in the Suntsar area of Gwadar district in Balochistan province at around 3 a.m.

“Around 24 gunmen armed with rockets and heavy weapons, attacked the checkpost and killed seven coastguard officials,” said provincial home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani. He said at least seven coastguard officials were also injured in the early morning attack.

A local tribal police official Muhammad Ali also confirmed the attack and casualties.

Intelligence sources told Newsweek that at least 10 security personnel had been killed but this claim could not be independently verified.

Banned separatist group, the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), claimed responsibility for the attack on the coastguard personnel. Gohram Baloch, spokesman for the organization, told journalists in Quetta via telephone that the BLF had killed 25 soldiers, and kidnapped two. He said two militants had also been killed in the attack. Government sources, however, maintain that the attack resulted in seven casualties and have yet to confirm any kidnappings.

Balochistan suffers from both Islamist militancy and a regional insurgency, which began in 2004, with rebels demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region’s natural resources. The province has also increasingly become a flashpoint for surging sectarian violence between Pakistan’s Sunni and Shia Muslim sects.

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