The shooting comes a day after gunmen on motorcycles shot dead eight men at a laundry in a busy area of Quetta, the capital of oil- and gas-rich Baluchistan province, before fleeing.
"Two gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire on a police mobile van, killing three policemen," senior local police official, Sikandar Tareen, told AFP.
He said that the incident happened while the policemen were on a routine patrol in the area.
Another local police official Abdul Qayyum also confirmed the incident and casualties.
Police and security forces are frequently attacked in insurgency-plagued Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
There was no claim of responsibility for the latest incident, but Baluchistan suffers from Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist insurgency.
Baluch rebels rose up in the province in 2004, demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from oil, gas and mineral resources in the region.
It is one of the most deprived regions of Pakistan despite its wealth in resources, and human rights activists have accused the military of mass arrests and extra-judicial executions in its bid to put down the separatist insurgency. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
