Islamabad, Feb 11 - Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that some "external powers" were conspiring to detach the Balochistan province from Pakistan by creating a volatile situation there.

Malik told the Senate Friday that the army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps were not guilty of abducting and killing people in the province, the Dawn reported Saturday.

He said that around 49,000 paramilitary and 2,000 coast guard personnel have been deployed in the province at a cost of 15 billion Pakistani rupees.

The federal government was committed to equipping security personnel with the latest equipment to enhance their capabilities to defend the country and its people, Malik said.(IANS)