QUETTA, Pakistan, April 11, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Four policemen were killed

Tuesday in a gunbattle with militants in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan
province, police said, hours after four people died in a bomb blast in the
region's capital.

Militants identified by police as being from the Pakistan Taliban opened fire
on a pre-dawn patrol in Kuchlak, officials said, and were still on the run.

"Militants opened fire on a police team from a compound killing four
policemen," senior local police official Muhammad Zohaib told AFP.

"One terrorist was also killed during the exchange of fire, while the
remainder escaped."

Counter-terrorism department official Aitzaz Goraya said the militants were
from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which is separate from Afghanistan's Taliban
but shares a similar ideology.

On Monday four people were killed -- two police and two civilians -- by a
motorcycle bomb in a busy market of Balochistan's capital, Quetta.

That attack was claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army.

Pakistan has been battling a years-long insurgency by militants in
Balochistan who are demanding a bigger share of the province's wealth, as
well as attacks by the Pakistan Taliban.

Tensions in the province, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, have been stoked by
a flood of Chinese investment under Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative that
locals say has not benefited them.

China is investing in the area under a $54 billion project known as the
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, upgrading infrastructure, power and
transport links between its far-western Xinjiang region and Pakistan's Gwadar
port.