Brazen assault: Gunmen attack Jiwani airport, destroy navigation system

Airport manager, engineer killed in the attack claimed by BLA

QUETTA:

Baloch insurgents armed with heavy weapons mounted a brazen assault on a small airport in Gwadar district before dawn on Sunday, killing two officers and destroying the navigation system. The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack on the Jiwani Airport close to the border with Iran.

“Around a dozen armed men riding six motorcycles attacked the airport around 4:30am, killing an engineer of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Khalil Ahmed, on the spot,” Abdul Hameed Abro, the deputy commissioner of Gwadar, told The Express Tribune by phone.

“They also kidnapped Airport Manager Mehmood Niazi,” Abro said, adding that Niazi’s body was later found dumped in the Mol area of Duran, a hilly track along the Mekran coast.

“The airport’s radar system was also destroyed in the attack,” he said. “The attackers forced their entry into the airport and took the staff hostage at gunpoint. Then they set fire to the VOR Radar system,” he added. “The attackers, however, spared the lives of four locals who also worked at the airport.”

CAA spokesperson Pervez George also confirmed the attack saying that the attackers torched the navigation equipment before entering the airport building. “They killed a superintendent and injured a supervisor critically,” he told AFP.

The casualties were driven to the Civil Hospital Jiwani where medics referred the injured supervisor, identified as Altaf, to a hospital in Karachi for treatment of his critical wounds. A purported spokesperson for the BLA, Meerak Baloch, claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to AFP.

During World War-II, the Jiwani Airport had been used by British forces as a forward base in the Gulf region. After the Indian subcontinent was partitioned in 1947, the airport was handed over to Pakistan. It had no active use except for offering landing facilities for small PIA aircraft.  However, sources said the airport had been shut about 20 years ago when the national flag-carrier suspended its flights to this coastal township.

“The Jiwani Airport was under the control of Pakistan Navy without any infrastructural facilities in this remote region of Mekran Coast,” a source said.

“The attack came three days after the government issued a high security alert for all major airports of the country and asked smaller airports to remain vigilant,” an official told The Express Tribune. He added that all airports in Balochistan have been put on high alert after the attack.

Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch condemned the attack and sought a detailed report from Mekran Division’s commissioner. “Those responsible for the attack will be traced and punished,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31st, 2015.