7 soldiers, 7 private security personnel martyred: OGDCL convoy attacked on Mekran Coastal Highway

QUETTA: A gun and rocket attack targeting a paramilitary escort on Thursday killed seven soldiers and seven private security guards in Balochistan, officials said.

The security detail was escorting a convoy of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) on Mekran Coastal Highway travelling to Karachi from Gwadar.

Military's public relations wing said the OGDCL personnel managed to escape the attack safely, but 14 security men had been killed in the incident.

The area has been sealed off and a search operation for the assailants had been launched, the military said in a statement.

An umbrella organisation of Baloch insurgent groups claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media post, but the veracity of the account could not be independently verified by Reuters. It was the second major attack in Pakistan in 24 hours.

At least 49 soldiers have been killed in the region since March, according to a Reuters tally of official figures.