BLA attacks Kalat Scouts convoy

* FC says one militant killed, three arrested in clash that followed ambush by BLA

By Malik Siraj Akbar

QUETTA: The Frontier Corps (FC) said on Sunday that it killed one ‘terrorist’ and injured three in Awaran district after they opened fire on a convoy of the visiting commandant of the Kalat Scouts. The banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the attempted ambush, and a former chairman of the Baloch Students’ Organization (BSO) has been named in a case registered by police.

The convoy of Colonel Khalilur Rehman of Kalat Scouts was visiting Mashky area – where an FC team was ambushed on November 14 – and was returning to Khuzdar when it came under attack around 9am in Jabri area, 40 kilometres north-west of Mashky thesil.

“The attack was carried out from a white van with the licence number plate QAF-257,” FC spokesman Shahid Mahmmod Khan said, adding that troops retaliated by firing in the direction of the van, killing Noor Mohammad and injuring three others, who are now in FC custody. “The condition of one of the arrested men is critical,” said the spokesman. Those arrested have been identified by local sources as Khalid, Zaid Hussain and Shamim. The FC official said forces had also seized hand grenades and other weapons.

The BLA, a banned organisation fighting for an ‘independent Balochistan’, accepted responsibility for the attack. Bibarg Baloch – a spokesman of the BLA – told Daily Times that the Pakistan Army had launched a new search operation in Mand and Mashky areas of Balochistan, which had resulted in the arrest of several ‘innocent people’. He said the attack on the FC had been launched in ‘self-defence’ against the operation.

“We have killed seven army personnel in a fight,” claimed the BLA spokesman, and said that two other troops were killed after a rocket was fired on their convoy.

Meanwhile, police in Mashky area have registered a case against Dr Allah Nazar Baloch, a former chairman of the BSO, and his accomplices Akhtar Nadeem and Abdul Ghafoor on an FC request.

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