QUETTA, Pakistan — Gunmen attacked a police post in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on Tuesday, sparking a shootout that killed two officers, police said, the latest sign of rising violence in the country.
Government Administrator Barkat Baloch said that a search is on for the assailants who fled after the attack in Balochistan’s Mastung district.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the shootings, but similar attacks have previously been blamed on Baloch separatists and Islamist militants who have a strong presence in the province and elsewhere in Pakistan.
Balochistan has witnessed a low-level insurgency by small groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although authorities say they have crushed the insurgency, violence continues in the state.