Hundreds of Pak tribal militants surrender

The fighters, led by three commanders, agreed to lay down their weapons at a parley with Baluchistan's Home Minister Shoaib Nausherwani in Dera Bugti district on Saturday.

Khan Mohammad Masoori, one of the commanders, pledged to halt attacks on government installations as his men handed over AK-47 rifles, machineguns, rocket launchers and mortars in Baker town, 400 km northeast of Quetta, officials said.

Baluch government officials hoped the fighters' decision to stop fighting would sound the death knell for a revolt led by tribal chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti.

"It is a big success for the government and setback for the rebels," Raziq Bugti, a spokesman for the Baluch government in Quetta, told Reuters. "The Bugti chapter has almost been closed now and militancy won't come back."

On Sunday, however, a bomb wounded nine people in a town close to Baker, the spokesman said.

The Bugtis have not been alone, however, in fighting to throw off federal government control. Leaders of the Marri and Mengal tribes have also been in revolt, and the shadowy Baluch Liberation Army has carried out attacks too.

Baluchistan is the poorest, and most thinly populated of Pakistan's four provinces. A desert region bordering Afghanistan to the north, and Iran to the west, it is rich in mineral resources, including copper, uranium and gas.

The militants want more autonomy, greater political representation, and more money from the exploitation of its mineral resources, particularly gas. Baluchistan has the country's largest gas reserves.