Gunmen disguised as
police guards attacked a terminal at Pakistan's busiest airport on Sunday with
machine guns and a rocket launcher during a five-hour siege that left 27 people
dead as explosions echoed into the night. The Pakistani Taliban, an alliance of
insurgent groups fighting to topple the government and set up a sharia state,
later claimed responsibility, saying it was in response to army attacks along
the Afghan border. The attack on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi,
began late Sunday and continued on into the dawn hours of Monday, although
officials said all the passengers had been evacuated.
Some reports suggest
that terrorists entered the terminal in
two groups. They were foreigners, and some
of them seemed to be Uzbeks. Chief
Minister of Sindh province, Qaim Ali Shah is quoted as saying that 'They were
well trained. Their plan was very well thought out,' 'It is a message to the Pakistan government
that we are still alive to react over the killings of innocent people in bomb
attacks on their villages,' said Shahidullah Shahid, a Taliban spokesman. The
spokesman for the Pakistani military, General Asim Bajwa, said on Twitter that
no aircraft were damaged and that as a precautionary measure, security forces
were sweeping the airport before operations would be returned to the Civil
Aviation Authority and airport police. Cricketer
turned politician Imran Khan tweeted this morning: 'Khi airport terrorist
attack shocking. Continuing security & intel lapses reflect a failure of
the govt's National Counter Terrorism Policy.' The city, Pakistan’s largest,
has been a hiding place for a number of senior Taliban and Al Qaeda figures.
Peace talks between the government and Taliban that began this year have
stalled, with the military recently resorting to air strikes on militant
hideouts, killing at least 75 people.
Firstpost reports that India's security managers need to
draw two quick lessons from the deadly terror attack and the overnight siege of
Karachi's Jinnah International Airport. One, firewall Indian airports against
fidayeen attacks where the terrorists’ brief may be to dig in their heels and
hijack a parked plane. And two, from now on, security agencies at all Indian
airports need to look for painkiller injections as well, not just weapons. In a
first, terrorists in the Karachi airport attack were reportedly armed with a
ready supply of painkiller injections. The idea was obviously to prepare them
for the long haul and keep on fighting even after sustaining injuries, by using
the painkiller injections. India’s Ministry of Home Affairs has rightly issued
a nationwide alert at all airports.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
Photo and news credit
: dailymail.co.uk
