Baloch rebels ambush and kill 14 FC men

Some of the hundreds of missing people in Balochistan

On Wednesday it was the turn of Balochistan nationalist fighters to have a go at Pakistan's Frontier Constabulary, which has lost large numbers of men in FATA in recent weeks. In a spectacular ambush in the Nawanu area of Balochistan close to the border with Iran, irregulars thought to be from the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Front killed 14 FC personnel, including their two officers.
The FC men, in two vehicles, were engaged in a mine-sweeping operation when they came under attack from rockets and heavy machine guns. The BLA 'samarchars' (freedom fighters) escaped with arms and ammunition from the dead soldiers. 
The attack comes against a background of unexplained killings of prominent Balochis and continuing detention of hundreds of opponents of Pakistani rule of the province. According to the International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, there have been more than 200 extra-judicial killings of missing persons in Balochistan since July 2010. Bodies turn up regularly on the sides of roads, many of them with broken limbs, knife or drill wounds and usually a gunshot wound to the head. Pakistani politicians regularly promise improvements in human rights and increased autonomy in the region, but the Army and intelligence agencies have their own agenda.