“Following the attack security forces launched a search operation in Jiwani and adjacent areas and arrested 20 suspects in connection with the attack,” police sources said. The suspects have been shifted to undisclosed location for interrogation.
Sources said security had already been beefed up at major airports of the province including Quetta International Airport and Gwadar Airport after the attack on Sunday.
Jiwani airport was not functional from past two decades.
According to the family sources of the late Airport Manager, Mehmood Khan Niazi was laid to rest at a local graveyard in Karachi.
Niazi, a resident of Sher Shah Street number three in Karachi, had been serving the CAA for the last 25 years.
He had spent most of his service posted in in Pasni, Gwadar and Jiwani.
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.
Read: Brazen assault: Gunmen attack Jiwani airport, destroy navigation system
“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.”
“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.
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