Pakistan thwarts militant attack on naval air station in southwestern Balochistan

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistani security forces thwarted a late-night attack on a naval air station in southwestern Balochistan, officials said Monday.

Four to six heavily-armed gunmen tried to barge into PNS Siddiq in Turbat district at 10 p.m. local time, but security forces "neutralized all attackers,” a senior military official told Anadolu on condition of anonymity.

No loss to any "sensitive equipment or casualties of our own troops" has so far been reported, he said, adding a clearance operation will begin shortly.

There was no official statement from the military.

The Balochistan Liberation Army, an outlawed separatist militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to local media.

The attack took place days after eight gunmen stormed a government complex in the strategic port city of Gwadar last week. All eight attackers and two army troops were killed in an hours-ling gun battle.

The group has long been involved in attacks on security forces in Pakistan's mineral-rich Balochistan, the country's largest but poorest province.

Security forces have long been facing a low-intensity rebellion by Baloch separatists, who claim the province had been “forcibly” incorporated into Pakistan, following the end of British colonial rule in United India in 1947.

The province is also a key route of the $64-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project which aims to connect China's strategically important northwestern Xinjiang province to Balochistan’s Gwadar Port through a network of roads, railways and pipelines for cargo, oil and gas transportation.