QUETTA: Gunmen killed five soldiers in a pre-dawn attack on a checkpost of the Frontier Corps in Dera Bugti district on Thursday.

The banned Baloch Republican Army claimed responsibility for the attack and said its men had taken away an FC man, along with weapons.

According to officials, the armed men attacked the checkpost in Kachhi canal area, some 20km south of the Sui gas filed, at about 4.30am.

The attackers, armed with rockets and automatic weapons, opened fire on the soldiers after encircling the checkpost. The five soldiers, a non-commissioned officer among them, were killed on the spot.

The officials said the checkpost caught fire after the attack and two of the FC personnel were burnt to death. The assailants took away four G-3 rifles, one light machine gun and other small weapons.

Security officials confirmed that one FC man was missing and said the bodies of five FC men, two of them burnt, were found at the scene.

Soon after the incident, a heavy contingent of Frontier Corps rushed to the site and shifted bodies to hospital. The bodies were later sent to their native towns. They were identified as Abdul Rauf, Sher Jan, Abdul Wali, Ayaz Khan and Ghulam Haider.

The officials said security forces had cordoned off the area and launched a massive search operation to arrest the killers.

It was the fourth attack on FC personnel in Balochistan over the past two months. The earlier attacks had claimed the lives of over 45 security personnel.

Calling from an unknown place, Baloch Republican Army spokesman Sarbaz Baloch claimed that BRA had killed 10 personnel and taken away an FC man alive. “Our men also torched three government vehicles and snatched weapons,” he said.

AFP quoted a security official as saying that six soldiers had been killed. He said that at least 10 gunmen were involved in the attack. “They came on motorcycles and took away all the weapons after killing the six FC men,” he said.