Gunmen stormed a remote airport in Balochistan before dawn on Sunday, killing two engineers and destroying the facility's radar system, authorities said. Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack on Jiwani airport.
The airport is in the Gwadar district, home to a strategic port of the same name that is key to a planned $46 billion China-Pakistan economic corridor linking the port to China's far-western Xinjiang district.
About a dozen armed men on motorcycles were involved in the attack, said provincial government spokesman Jan Muhammad Buledi. "They entered the control room at about 3:30 am and set it on fire," said a senior police official in the province. He said one man was killed, one wounded and a third engineer was abducted. The body of the abducted engineer was later found in nearby mountains on Sunday afternoon, police said.
Flights have not been running to Jiwani airport since Pakistan International Airlines suspended service several years ago.
However, civil aviation workers continued to use airport's radar and navigational systems to aid aircraft flying over the area.
An official with the Civil Aviation Authority said later on Sunday that back-up systems already in place meant there was no disruption to international air traffic.
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