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Gunmen kill 3 officers

ISLAMABAD — Gunmen killed three police in an overnight attack in northern Pakistan, and a suicide bomber wounded three Chinese engineers and three paramilitary guards in a separate incident, officials said Saturday.

Spokesman for the local government of northern Gilgit Baltistan territory Faizullah Faraq said one of the gunmen who attacked a police post was killed in the ensuing shootout late Friday. Another two police were wounded.

The suicide bomber struck near a bus carrying Chinese engineers from Baluchistan to Karachi on Saturday. Hashim Ghilzai, a senior official in the region, confirmed the six wounded. He said the attacker was in a parked car and blew himself up when the bus got closer to him in the Dalbandin area.

The Baluch Liberation Army, a separatist group, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack — the first time any Baluch separatist group has taken responsibility for a suicide attack.

BLA spokesman Junaid Baluch said in a statement on the group’s webpage that more such attacks would be carried out on Chinese involved in “exploiting the resources of Baluchistan.”

The southwestern province is the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baluch separatists who wants greater share from provincial resources or outright autonomy from Islamabad.

Militants in Pakistan carry out near-daily attacks, mainly targeting security forces.

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