QUETTA: Gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in Balochistan province, nine police officers martyred before security forces launched a clearance operation that authorities said left 15 suspected militants dead.
The attack targeted a police post in the Mangi area of Ziarat district, according to local police.
Ziarat police chief Abdul Qudoos said the bodies of the slain officers had been transferred to the district headquarters hospital.
He said the attackers also abducted five police officers during the assault. Authorities have launched efforts to recover the abducted personnel.
Later, Balochistan government spokesman Shahid Rind said security forces, including the Frontier Corps, police, the Counter Terrorism Department, the Special Operations Wing and the Anti-Terrorism Force, completed a joint clearance operation in the area.
Rind said 15 suspected militants were killed during the operation. The official account of the operation has not been independently verified.
Among the officers killed were the station house officers of the Mangi and Kowas police stations, an Anti-Terrorism Force commander and other police personnel, Rind said.
He added that Deputy Superintendent of Police Ghulam Sarwar and eight other officers safely reached Kach police station, while Constable Rizwan was also rescued.
In a separate statement, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack, expressed condolences to the families of the slain officers and said the assault would not undermine Pakistan’s efforts to restore peace.
Rind said intelligence-based operations against militants would continue and vowed that there would be no safe haven for armed groups in Balochistan.
