QUETTA, 2 August 2004 — Gunmen ambushed a government vehicle near Khuzdar in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province yesterday, killing at least six people, including five soldiers, and wounding two, police said.

The assailants attacked the vehicle around 200 kilometers southeast of the Balochistan provincial capital, Quetta, they said.

“Five soldiers and a civilian were killed in the attack,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said in Islamabad. One soldier and a civilian were wounded, he said. Sultan said the soldiers were in civilian clothes and were going on leave. “It is an act of terrorism.

“We have launched investigations,” he said. The Baloch National Army (BNA), a shadowy militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack.

A spokesman for the BNA, who identified himself as Azad Khan, telephoned several newspapers offices in Quetta, claiming that the attack was in response to a military operation on Baloch militants. He vowed more such attacks if the crackdown continued.

Pakistan security forces launched a massive operation last week in the Turbat area, around 380 kilometers south of Khuzdar, following a similar attack in which two soldiers were killed.

Police blame Baloch nationalists for the frequent attacks on security forces and government installations. The nationalists demand more control over the area’s natural gas and mineral resources as well as political and economic rights.

They are also vehemently opposing government plans to build three military cantonments in the province, saying that the government should allocate funds for development instead.

Trouble has been brewing in Balochistan for the past several months.

There have been a spate of rocket attacks and bombings in various Baloch cities and towns, specially targeting the natural gas supply pipelines.

Thousands of paramilitary and regular troops have been deployed in the remote areas to protect the country’s biggest natural gas fields and other government installations which are the main targets of militants.

On Saturday one soldier was killed and six others were injured when an army convoy hit an explosive device in North Waziristan, witnesses said.

Sources said that Corporal Farman died instantly. They said the injured soldiers were flown to Bannu for medical treatment. The incident took place in Pash Ziarat near Shawal in North Waziristan.

The military convoy was heading for Razmak from Gharbaz, sources said.