Gunfights, blasts kills 30 in Baluchistan

“Around 100 heavily armed tribesmen attacked the convoy comprising around 40 paramilitary soldiers led by a colonel,” a military official said on the condition of anonymity. “The soldiers were forced to retaliate.”

Separately, railway officials said a bomb hidden in a toilet tore through a carriage on a passenger train heading towards the provincial capital Quetta, killing one person and injuring five.

Another bomb went off in a train,about 100 km southeast of Quetta, killing one man and wounding three people.

The province has been gripped by a sporadic tribal revolt for more than a year but the violence surged after the January rape of a 32 year-old doctor at Pakistan’s largest gas field at Sui in Baluchistan.

‘‘According to our assessment, based on reports from security officials in the area, up to 30 people died and more than 70 injured,’’ a home ministry official told afp on condition of anonymity following the clashes. It was unclear if the toll included the figure of eight soldiers killed and 23 injured given by officials earlier for the violence at Dera Bugti, southeast of Quetta.

A ceasefire was agreed yesterday to remove the dead and wounded.

‘‘The casualties were high because the exchange of rockets and mortar shells continued from both sides throughout the day on Thursday,’’ the Home Ministry official said.

The government has dismissed the tribesmen’s claims that up to 50 people on their side alone were killed as ‘‘exaggerated’’. Baluch nationalist opposition politician Kachkol Ali had told reporters in the provincial capital Quetta that at least 50 tribal people died and 150 were wounded in the fighting.

A military official also said that around 400 tribesmen also attacked a security post manned by up to 20 paramilitary soldiers on the outskirts of Dera Bugti on Thursday. “The Bugti tribesmen used multi-barrel rocket launchers. The fighting lasted for around 10 hours, despite repeated attempts to reach a ceasefire,” he said.