QUETTA: Ethnic Baloch separatists launched "coordinated" attacks across Pakistan's Balochistan province on Saturday, killing at least four policemen, officials said, the latest violence in insurgency-hit southwest region.
"The coordinated gun and suicide attacks are being carried out across Balochistan, mainly in Quetta, Pasni, Mastung, Nushki and Gwadar districts," a senior security official based in the provincial capital of Quetta told AFP.
"At least four policemen were killed in Quetta alone," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
A senior military official based in Islamabad confirmed the attacks, adding they were "coordinated but poorly executed".
The attacks "failed due to poor planning and rapid collapse under effective security response," the official added, without commenting on the death toll.
At least four police officials in as many districts confirmed to AFP the situation was not completely under control yet.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most active militant separatist group in the province, claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement sent to AFP.
The group claimed to target military installations and police and civil administration officials during gun attacks and suicide bombings.
Pakistan has been battling a separatist insurgency in Balochistan for decades, where militants target state forces, foreign nationals and non-locals in the mineral-rich southwestern province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.