By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
More than 20 separatists were killed in bloody clashes between two rival groups in Pakistan’s violence-plagued Baluchistan province on Monday, police said.
Fighting between the Baluchistan Liberation Army and the United Baluch Army in remote Kohlu district, 300 kilometers (185 miles) from provincial capital Quetta, saw rockets and heavy weapons used, Frontier Constabulary spokesman Khan Waseh told Anadolu Agency.
The two separatist groups are led by rival brothers Harbayar and Zawran Marri, who reportedly fell out following the death of their father Ghous Bux Marri, head of the powerful Marri tribe, last year.
Mineral-rich Baluchistan has been beset by an armed separatist struggle for decades. The separatists claim the province was forcibly incorporated into Pakistan at the end of British colonial rule in 1947.
