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| Balash Khan Marri, right, was believed to have been hiding in Afghanistan [AFP] |
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A senior Baluch leader wanted by the Pakistani security forces has been shot dead in Afghanistan, according to a spokesman for his group.
Balash Khan Marri was the head of the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) which blew up a gas pipeline and two power pylons in January.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder in Islamabad said that Pakistan's security forces had asked the Afghan government several times to hand over Marri, who they thought was hiding across the border.
"The attack came in the same area that Mullah Dadullah was killed not so long ago," he said on Wednesday.
Dadullah, the Taliban's senior military commander, died in clashes with Afghan and US-led forces in Helmand province in May.
Pakistani security forces have been involved in a number of clashes in Baluchistan several movements are demanding greater autonomy for the region and improved benefits from the area's mineral wealth.
"This will come as a major blow to the Baluch Liberation Army and already we are seeing protests in the provincial capital, Quetta, at that news," Hyder reported.
The BLA said it carried out the bombing of a crowded market in Quetta in 2004, which killed 11 people and injured 27 others.
The Pakistani army has also clashed with Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in the province in recent years.
The increasing threat of attacks by anti-government groups in provinces along the Afghan border was cited as one reason by Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, for imposing a state of emergency.
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Al Jazeera and agencies
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