Pak separatists storm Gwadar port

Baloch separatists armed with guns and bombs attacked Pakistan's strategic Gwadar port, key to the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, yesterday, with seven militants shot dead by security forces, a government official said. China has invested heavily in mineral-rich Balochistan, including developing Gwadar, despite a decades-long insurgency. The militants stormed the complex in the rugged southwestern province which houses offices of different government departments, intelligence agencies and paramilitary forces, said Saeed Ahmed Umrani, a government commissioner. "Attackers carried out many blasts," he told Reuters, adding that it was followed with a gun attack. He said the army and police were responding to the attackers. He said he had received reports that seven of the attackers had been killed, adding authorities were trying to confirm reports of a soldier's death. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of several separatist groups in Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the assault, saying its militants attacked Pakistan intelligence agencies' offices.