Rioters in Pakistan's Baluchistan kill two people, set ablaze a bank and torch vehicles after three Baluch leaders were found shot dead.

The mutilated bodies of the dissident Baluchis, whose supporters said were picked up by intelligence agents in Turbat on April 2 and went missing since then were found dumped in a remote location on the outskirts of the southwest town, a party official said.

The victims were identified as the head of the Baluchistan National Party (BNP), Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, his deputy Lala Munir Baloch and Sher Mohammad of the Baluchistan Republican Party, BNP spokesman Asif Baluch told reporters on Thursday.

The BNP leader had played an important role in the release of kidnapped American UN official John Solecki two months ago in Baluchistan's capital Quetta. Solecki was released on Saturday and was alleged to have been held by the little-known Baluchistan Liberation United Front.

As public anger boiled over for the murder of the three nationalist politicians, protesters set ablaze a bank and torched government vehicles, including a UN car, in the provincial capital of Baluchistan, Quetta.

Violence also erupted in other parts of Baluchistan, including the port town of Gwadar, and a policeman and a doctor were killed in the town of Khuzdar, police said. This is while police used teargas in some areas to disperse protesters. There were no reports of disruptions at the province's gas fields.

Elsewhere in the province, a hand grenade was hurled on a minibus, which was heading to Karachi wounding at least 10 people on Thursday.

Meanwhile, senior police official Ghulam Ali Lashari told AFP that the situation was under control and that 12 people were detained for disturbing the peace. BNP claims 20 were arrested.

A spokesman for the rebel Baluch Liberation Army (BLA), Meerak Baluch, later claimed responsibility for the policeman's death. He said, "We killed the policeman because security forces have again started targeting our unarmed people," he told AFP by telephone.

Baluchistan is Pakistan's biggest province in terms of area but its population is the smallest and poorest. Baluch nationalists have for decades campaigned for greater autonomy and control of the province's gas resources. Baluch militants have also waged a low-level insurgency.

Taliban Islamist militants fighting in Afghanistan also operate out of Baluchistan but they have no links with the largely secular nationalists.

FTP/SME/MMA