QUETTA: Around 1,000 Pakistani paramilitary troops backed by helicopters are battling separatists in the country’s restive southwest, with the rebel death toll rising to 13 Thursday on the second day of fighting.

The clash with separatists began on Wednesday in the area of a gasfield in Pirkoh, some 245 km southeast of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province which is wracked by a tribal insurgency, Taleban attacks and sectarian violence.

“Security forces have killed at least 13 miscreants who were hiding in the gasfield when they refused to surrender,” Manzoor Ahmed, a spokesman for Frontier Corps told AFP.