Pakistani paramilitary forces Monday killed five members of a militant group linked to the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorist group, officials said.

Frontier Corps troops stormed a compound in the southwestern province of Balochistan and killed them in a gunfight, paramilitary spokesman Khan Wasay told AFP.

The militants belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which works both with ISIL and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan, he said.

Provincial home secretary Akbar Harifal confirmed the details of the clash in the village of Huramzai in Pashin district, 35 kilometres (21 miles) north of the provincial capital Quetta.

The LeJ has claimed responsibility for some of the most brazen attacks on minorities in Pakistan’s recent history, and had also turned its guns on government forces in recent years.

Separately, security forces arrested 10 Baloch separatists after a gunfight in Khuzdar district.

Mineral-rich Balochistan province has been plagued for decades by a separatist insurgency and sectarian killings.

Source: AFP