Two paramilitary soldiers and five insurgents were killed in gunbattles on Tuesday in Balochistan, officials said, highlighting the challenges to a huge Chinese investment project. The first clash was in Gwadar district, where Beijing has taken over a deepwater seaport that will be the starting point of a $46 billion "economic corridor" of roads, pipelines and rail links to Kashgar in western China.
Insurgents fired rockets at the air traffic control tower of Pasni airport in Gwadar district late on Monday, causing some damage but no casualties, paramilitary Frontier Corps spokesman Manzoor Ahmed told AFP. Security forces mounted a search after the attack and this culminated in a gunbattle with insurgents in the Zarin Bogh area, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Gwadar.
"Two soldiers were martyred and an insurgent was killed and another captured in a clash with security forces," Ahmed said. Provincial home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani confirmed the clash. Sarbaz Baloch, a spokesman for the Baloch Liberation Army rebel group, claimed responsibility for attack on the airport in a call to journalists.
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