Four killed in Baluchistan gunfight

Four people were killed and another four injured when suspected insurgents traded fire with security forces and pro-government tribesmen in southwest Pakistan, officials said yesterday.

The gunfight occurred Tuesday in Baluchistan province, which has been hit by a low-key insurgency involving ethnic Baluch rebels demanding greater autonomy and control over the region's extensive mineral resources.

Officials said the dead included two passers-by, an insurgent and a pro-government tribesman. One injured rebel was captured and three tribesmen allied to the government were injured.

The rebels and the pro-government tribesmen were from the area's Bugti clan of late Baluch tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was killed by security forces last year.

His son, Talal Bugti, who heads Jamhoori Watan Party, denied that his supporters opened fire on the security forces. He accused the security forces of opening fire on his loyalists without any provocation.