The Quetta-Karachi highway remained completely closed to traffic for more than eight hours on Wednesday after intense clashes between armed fighters and Pakistani forces in the Khad Kocha area of Mastung, local sources said.
The fighting began between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. after a large number of armed fighters targeted a Pakistani military armoured vehicle with an improvised explosive device and subsequently ambushed forces in the area, according to the sources.
Intense clashes then broke out at two separate locations and continued for several hours, they added.
Sources said several Pakistani military personnel were killed or injured during the fighting, although no confirmed casualty figures were immediately available.
The situation in Khad Kocha remained tense, while the Quetta-Karachi highway was still closed to all traffic at the time of publication.
The latest clashes came less than two weeks after the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) carried out a similar attack on a Pakistani military convoy in the same area on 22 August.
The group said an armoured vehicle was destroyed with an IED and other military vehicles were subsequently ambushed, claiming that 13 personnel were killed and more than 10 injured.
The Balochistan Home Department imposed an indefinite curfew in Khad Kocha and surrounding areas following that attack.
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