Armed with heavy artillery and IEDs, terrorists breached Pakistan Air Force’s fortified Minhas Base in Kamra – a two hour drive from Islamabad -- in the wee hours of Thursday. The attack was repulsed by early morning by which time all nine terrorists were killed in the intensive gun battle that ensued on the sprawling base that is said to house a part of Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack to avenge the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The TTP spokesman told dawn.com that two groups of terrorists had entered the base from separate points and launched a combined attack. He claimed that more than a dozen security personnel were killed in the attack and three JF-17 thunder aircraft were destroyed.
The PAF, however, maintained that only one soldier was killed and an officer injured in the attack. And, one aircraft was damaged. According to PAF, the terrorists were armed with automatic weapons, grenade launchers and IEDs besides had bombs strapped to their bodies. One of them blew himself up. Even after the gun fight was over, explosions could be heard from the airbase as security personnel detonated the recovered IEDs in a controlled environment.
The base –in the North Punjab district of Attock – is home to the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex where Mirage and the JF-17 thunder jets are assembled. It has been attacked thrice in the past and a week ago The Express Tribune had reported that the TTP was planning an attack on the PAF base in Lahore and other such facilities before Eid to avenge the killing of their leader Ghaffar Qaiserani alias Saifullah in Dera Ghazi Khan.
Following the pre-dawn attack, some arrests have been made from residential areas adjacent to the base. With it being unclear how the terrorists entered the base, people were being questioned for information of movements around the complex since it was `Lailat ul Qadr’ – the night of the 27th Ramzan when people stay away praying till `sehri’ (the morning meal before start of the day’s fasting).
Just like the attack on the naval airbase in Karachi last year, the ability of terrorists to enter the PAF base undetected with enough time to announce their presence has once again thrown up uncomfortable questions for the all powerful security establishment of the country; particularly given the fact that a sizable portion of the cash-strapped nation’s budget goes into defence.
Keywords: Pakistan Air Force base attak, Kamra air base
You 'reap what you sow' as the saying goes..
Pakistan encouraged militancy and terror as a foreign policy tool, now the Frakenstein monster has become uncontrollable and is coming back to bite the creator..
Unfortunate and disturbing that to right in the month of fasting,but the issue of Nuclear weapons at the Air Base seems to be far fetched.
It is only a matter of time before some of these misguided psychopaths finally manage to steal Pakistan's ill guarded nuclear weapons and launch an attack on India, while our Politicians and self appointed page 3 intellectuals harp about'Aman ki Asha'. The need of the hour is positive assertive action from India before Pakistan succumbs to the cancer it has contracted, thanks to its own ideological failures.
The ISI and the military of Pakistan encouraged and supported the militants with guns and amunition to terrorise India with hatred. The nation itself is formed on fundamentalism. It encourged the fundamentalists and fanatics to attack on India. Now, the same terrorists are attackingthe sovereignty of Pakistan. The proverb is proved once again "You reap what you sow".
"A group of heavily-armed militants on Friday stormed a key Pakistan Air
Force base in Punjab province..." Did the attack happen last week? Today
is Thursday.
Expressing grief over the demise of the security personnel.At least now,under these deliberations government should make unique dress code which may not be available for the terrorists.
It's great concern of world security. Once the nuclear weapon hands by terrorist group it can be used against any country. so world leader must have serious view over the issue and pressurized Pakistan to either flash-out all terrorist from the country or neutralized all the nuclear weapon
It is highly disturbing. Hope Indian Govt is on alert. That the insiders in the airforce might have helped the intruders is all the more intriguing that the disgruntgled ekements might cause disaster to any nation's security. How to identify and week them out is important. No "due process of law" should be considered; punish them wwith death penalty, so that itt will be a warning to future extremists.
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