QUETTA, June 26: A police constable was killed and five people injured in Pakistan on Wednesday, following a gun battle with Taliban militants at a police housing and training complex, security officials said.
Three militants wearing suicide vests attempted to storm the complex in the restive southwestern province of Baluchistan when confronted by guards at the entrance.
“Police personnel deployed at the gate killed one of the suicide bombers,” senior police officer Abdul Rehman Luni told Reuters.
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“The other two blew themselves up inside the police complex,” he said, adding that a senior constable was killed in the attack, and five wounded people were taken to hospital.
The attack was claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, in a statement sent to journalists.
Military cordoned off the area after the attack.
The walled complex comprises police residences and training facilities and is heavily guarded in a province where attacks on security officials are common.
Islamist militant groups and separatists fighting the central government are active in mineral-rich Baluchistan, with frequent attacks on gas and transport infrastructure and security posts.
Baluchistan’s coastal city of Gwadar is a strategic port on the Arabian Sea that is being developed as part of the $60-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, part of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure project.
In May, gunmen from the Balochistan Liberation Army insurgent group dressed as military officers stormed a luxury five-star hotel in Gwadar, killing three security guards, an employee, and a naval official in the ensuing gunbattle.
