QUETTA, Jan 22 (AFP): At least six Pakistani police officers were killed Wednesday while escorting a Spanish tourist as he cycled through the highly volatile southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said.
The cyclist and his escort of local tribal police were ambushed in Mastung district, about 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of the provincial capital Quetta.
Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, is one of Pakistan's most unstable provinces, rife with separatist and Islamist militants and plagued by sectarian bloodshed.
Kidnappings for ransom are common in parts of the province and Western hostages could be expected to fetch a high price.
"The local tribal police officials were escorting the Spanish cyclist after he entered Pakistan from Iran when gunmen attacked him," a senior local administration official, Shafqat Sehwani, told AFP.
Six police officers were killed and five wounded in an exchange of fire, he said, adding that the cyclist suffered only minor injuries.
Provincial home secretary Asad Gilani told AFP the Spaniard, whose name was not immediately available, had undergone a full medical checkup and was now "in the custody of the provincial administration".
"We are making arrangements to send him to Islamabad by evening," Gilani added.
A senior local administration official, Akbar Baluch, confirmed the incident in which one of the attackers was also killed.
In March last year two Czech women were abducted as they travelled through Baluchistan from Iran, and they remain missing. A video of them asking their government to work for their release was aired in October.
