Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Gunmen shot dead a local government minister in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, where secessionist militants are demanding a greater share of the region’s gas and mineral wealth.

Education Minister Shafiq Ahmed Khan was killed yesterday near his home in the provincial capital, Quetta, when attackers riding a motorcycle opened fire on his car with automatic weapons, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

The Baluchistan United Liberation Front, a separatist group waging an insurgency in the province bordering Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, the Associated Press reported.

Pakistan is experiencing near daily attacks on government targets and security forces as troops battle Taliban militants in the South Waziristan tribal region, north of Baluchistan. The army is seeking to destroy a Taliban faction that was led by Baitullah Mehsud until his death in a U.S. missile strike in August. Pakistan blames the group for 80 percent of terrorist attacks in the country.

Troops yesterday secured the mountain top of Tarkona Narai after a 16-hour fight with militants, and also took control of ridges on the Jandola-Sararogha Axis, the military said in a statement. A day earlier, forced captured Kotkai, the hometown of the new Pakistani Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud, according to the army.

Army Offensive

The offensive is the army’s biggest against Taliban militants and involves 28,000 soldiers. Insurgents have mounted increasing attacks, including an assault on the army headquarters earlier this month and commando-style raids on police complexes in the eastern city of Lahore.

Gunmen killed an army officer and his guard when they opened fire on a military jeep in the Pakistani capital last week. A twin suicide bombing at the International Islamic University in Islamabad last week, the first to target a major university, killed five people and prompted the government to close schools nationwide for five days.

The military says it expects to complete the operation in six to eight weeks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 25, 2009 19:43 EDT