Pakistan: Insurgents kill 14 soldiers in Balochistan

An attack on a convoy in southern Pakistan killed 14 troops on Friday, the military said in a statement.

"Two vehicles of security forces moving from Pasni to Ormara in Gwadar District were ambushed by the terrorists," the statement said, without further identifying what group they expected was behind the attack.

The attack targeting the convoy took place on a coastal highway that stretches from the Iranian border to the southern metropolis of Karachi.

A decades-long insurgency in Balochistan

Balochistan, a mineral rich region, is home to a decades-old insurgency led by ethnic Baloch guerillas fighting the government.

The Baloch have long complained that they do not get a fair share of the province's profits, which has given rise to a number of separatist groups.

"Sanitization operation is being carried out in the area and perpetrators of this heinous act will be hunted down and brought to justice," the army said in a statement, without mentioning the group behind the attack.

Seeking to overthrow the Pakistani government and impose their own brand of strict Islamic law on the Muslim-majority country of 220 million, Islamist militants have also been active in Balochistan.

dh,wr/jsi (AFP, Reuters)