Pakistani men shift an injured policeman into a hospital after unidentified gunmen attacked a check point in Quetta on December 24, 2012.
Separate incidents of violence have claimed at least nine lives and injured several others in the restive Balochistan Province of southwest Pakistan.
In the first incident, at least six militants were killed during a clean-up operation by security forces in the mountainous Mach area of Balochistan’s Bolan district on Saturday, the daily Dawn newspaper reported.
The security forces say they have also seized a hoard of arms and ammunitions, including explosives, machine guns and grenades.
The raid was conducted in connection to investigations into the recent killing of more than a dozen people in the volatile area last week. At least 14 people, including three security personnel, were killed when heavily-armed men opened fire on vehicles at a fake checkpoint in Mach on Tuesday.
Separately, at least two attackers were killed during an exchange of fire at a checkpoint in the provincial capital, Quetta.
In another incident, a roadside bomb explosion killed a Baloch tribal leader, Zra Khan, and injured two of his guards in the provinceâ„¢s Dera Bugti district.
Fresh wave of violence comes after a powerful explosion near a police station and a deadly shooting at a mosque claimed at least 50 lives in Quetta.
Pro-Taliban militants and some Baloch insurgent groups have carried out numerous attacks against security forces as well as civilians and managed to spread their influence in various regions of the country, despite frequent offensives by the Pakistani army.
Some Baloch militant groups say they want greater political autonomy and a share of the province’s natural resources.
Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered an alliance with the US in the so-called war on terror.
Thousands more have been displaced by the wave of violence and militancy sweeping across the country.
JR/SS
Republished from: Press TV