Agence France Presse

Quetta, January 12:

Pakistan has deployed paramilitary forces at the country’s biggest gasfield and closed its main plant there after a series of rocket attacks by tribal rebels killed eight people, officials said today.

Violence has raged for five days at the state-run Sui gas facility in Baluchistan following the alleged gang rape of a woman doctor working at the plant. In the latest incident overnight, two soldiers and two civilians were killed in a fierce firefight between security forces and the tribesmen, who have long pressed for more royalties and jobs from the gasfield. “Paramilitary soldiers have taken control and set up a string of pickets in the mountainous area around the Sui gas complex,” an interior ministry official said.