Quetta, Pakistan: Unidentified gunmen have stormed two passenger coaches in southwest Pakistan, killing at least 19 people.

The buses were en route to Karachi late on Friday when they were attacked in Mastung district, deputy district commissioner Akbar Harifal said.

Security forces rescued five passengers after an exchange of fire, he said.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack but Baluch separatists demanding greater autonomy have been waging an insurgency for years and the province is also riven by sectarian strife and Islamist violence.

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Rebels began their fifth insurgency against the state in 2004, and hundreds of soldiers and militants have been killed since then.

Human rights groups have accused the security forces of picking up non-militant separatists – including academics and students – torturing them and dumping their bodies on the streets.

AFP