UPDATE 2 – Pakistan: 10 killed as militants storm police compound

UPDATES WITH DEATH TOLL, MORE DETAILS; EDITS THROUGHOUT</p> <p>By Aamir Latif</p> <p>KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – At least ten people, including six police officers, were killed and another 15 injured in a gun-and-bomb attack on a police compound in southwestern Balochistan province on Tuesday, officials and local media reported.</p> <p>The attack on the compound which houses several police offices in Loralai district, located some 154 kilometers (95.69 miles) from provincial capital Quetta, occurred when scores of cadets were giving a test, local broadcaster Dunya News reported.</p> <p>Abdul Majeed Dashti, a city police chief, told Anadolu Agency six police officers and four attackers were killed in four-hour long battle; whereas 15 others, mostly cops were injured in the attack — the second in less than a month in the district.</p> <p>“The clearance operation is over. All four terrorists have been killed in the operation”, he said.</p> <p>The assailants, he added, first fired and then hurled hand grenades on different locations inside the compound.</p> <p>“They also stormed the office of the deputy inspector general of police, who luckily was not present there,” Dashti said adding: “Most of the hand grenades fell in the area where the cadets were giving test.”</p> <p>There was no immediate word of claiming responsibility for the brazen attack, however Baloch separatists and the Taliban have long been targeting the security forces in the region.</p> <p>On Jan. 1, terrorists stormed a para-military force compound in Loralai, killing four troops. Four terrorists had been killed in exchange of fire with security forces while one blew himself up.</p> <p>Last November, a similar attack on the Chinese Consulate in Karachi killed seven people, including three militants of separatist group Balochistan Liberation Army.</p> <p>The large Balochistan province has been plagued by violence for over six decades with separatists claiming it was forcibly incorporated into Pakistan at the end of British rule in 1947.</p> <p>The province is also a key route of China's billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative project which aims to connect China's strategically important northwestern Xinxiang province to Balochistan’s Gawadar port through a network of roads, railways and pipelines to transport cargo, oil and gas.