Three paramilitary personnel,including a non-commissioned officer,were killed and five more injured in an attack by Taliban militants on a check post in Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan. The militants attacked the Frontier Corps personnel at the check post in Mir Alikhail area close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border yesterday morning. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack,media reports said. There were reports that five paramilitary personnel were missing after the attack but this could not be officially confirmed. Officials told the media that the militants attacked the check post with automatic weapons. Troops from other nearby check posts rushed to the spot and retaliated. After a heavy exchange of fire,the militants escaped. A Pakistani Taliban spokesman,who called the BBC from an unknown location,claimed that the militants had killed three security personnel,injured seven more and kidnapped five personnel. There has been a spike in violence blamed on the Pakistani Taliban in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in the country's northwest over the past few weeks but the militant grouping rarely carries out attacks in Balochistan. Much of the violence in the southwestern province is blamed on Baloch nationalist groups.
