Islamabad - Unknown gunmen riding on a motorbike shot dead two policemen in Pakistan's south-west Balochistan province, officials said.

The officers were on routine patrol in Sariab Road area of the provincial capital Quetta when they came under fire, said city police chief Rehmatullah Niazi.

Both died on the spot while the assailants managed to flee from the area. The bodies of the deceased were moved to the city's Civil Hospital.

No one had accepted responsibility for the attack, but Baloch nationalists seeking autonomy and a greater share of the province's oil and gas wealth have carried out such raids as part of their three-year guerrilla campaign against security forces.

Pakistan's new government has recently offered peace talks to the insurgents but the violence continues.

On Tuesday, a pro-government tribal leader, Bangal Bugti, and a companion were killed in a roadside bomb explosion. Baloch nationalists accepted responsibility for the killing. (dpa)