Pakistani security forces kill 31 militants

Security forces killed 31 fighters in an offensive against renegade Baluch tribesmen in south-western Pakistan, officials said today.

An aide of a top Baluch tribal leader, however, denied it, and said his militia had shot down a military helicopter, a claim rejected by the government.

It was not immediately possible to reconcile the conflicting accounts of yesterday’s fighting near Dera Bugti, a remote town about 210 miles south-east of Quetta, the capital of restive Baluchistan province.

Thousands of security forces have been deployed to snuff out the long-running insurgency in tribal regions of Pakistan’s poorest province.

Tribesmen are demanding more royalties for natural gas extracted from their land and oppose government moves to establish new military garrisons.