Separatists attack govt office, burn police station in Pakistan

QUETTA, Jan 09 (AP): Dozens of armed Baloch separatists seized a government office, robbed a bank and partially burned a police station in a remote district in southwestern Pakistan before fleeing when security forces arrived, police said Thursday.

The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack Wednesday in Khuzdar in Balochistan, where analysts say separatists are becoming as large a threat to national security as the Pakistani Taliban.

There were no casualties in the attack, authorities said. Suhail Khalid, a local police officer, said the insurgents fled when security forces arrived and the situation was under control.

In recent months, Balochistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have experienced a surge in militant violence, most blamed on the Baloch army and the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.