Karachi airport open for operations

Posted by Unknown on Thursday, June 12, 2014 | 0 comments | Leave a comment...

The Karachi airport has been reopened for passengers and all flight operations, said Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asim Bajwa.
Earlier on Sunday, a five-hour attack by militants on the international airport in Karachi left at least 28 dead, including ten terrorists. The attack was claimed by banned militant organisation Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
"Karachi airport has been cleared and handed over to Civil Aviation Authority and the Airport Security Force," Major Asim said while speaking to Dawn.com.
Meanwhile, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was scheduled to resume its flight operations by 4 pm Monday afternoon after security clearance, a spokesman of the national flag carrier told APP on phone.
"Four PIA employees were martyred in the terrorist attack," he said.
A report on the Karachi airport attack, which was presented to Prime Minister Sharif on Monday, revealed that terrorists wanted to destroy all the aircraft.
It also disclosed that terrorists had entered the airport from two separate locations.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz on Aviation Shujaat Azeem said that security was heightened at all the airports.
- DAWN 

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Sri Lanka’s tour to Pakistan uncertain

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, June 11, 2014 | 0 comments | Leave a comment...

Uncertainty looms over the planned tours by Ireland and Sri Lankan cricket teams to Pakistan this year following the terrorist attacks at the Karachi airport here.
“We were going to sign an agreement with the Ireland cricket body on the sidelines of the ICC executive board meeting in Melbourne this month. They had agreed to come and play three one-day internationals in Lahore in September,” a senior official of the board told PTI.
“We had also got positive vibes from Sri Lankan cricket authorities about the invitation we sent them last month to come and play a short one-day series anytime this year.”
“But now, after this attack, it would be fair to say these projects appear very dim,” the official added.
He said the idea to invite Ireland came about as the board was keen to have some sort of international cricket in Pakistan.
“The English and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Chairman Giles Clarke had played a part in helping us in this project and convincing Ireland it was safe to play in Pakistan and we would provide them top security,” he said.
“But now it appears everything has gone down the drain,” he said.
No Test team has played in Pakistan since March 2009, when militants attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in which six Pakistani policemen and a van driver were killed and some of the visiting players also wounded leading to abandonment of the tour.
PCB chairman Najam Sethi had in recent press interactions hinted at giving some good news to Pakistani cricket fans and supporters and insisted the board was making serious efforts to get international cricket back to Pakistan.
Another official said the Sri Lankans had also reacted positively to the invitation sent to them.
“Now we have to start afresh and this incident also means that now when we go to the ICC meeting to sign bilateral agreements with different boards for the next five to eight years it will be hard convincing them to keep the option of playing in Pakistan open,” the official said.
He said Pakistan had negotiated well with some boards who had agreed to play bilateral series as part of the new FTP calender.
PTI

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Another attack at Karachi airport

Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 | 0 comments | Leave a comment...

Another attack at Karachi airport
Around 10 gunmen attacked a security checkpost outside Pakistan's Karachi airport on Tuesday, officials said, and were exchanging fire with troops, a day after a siege by the Taliban left 37 dead.

The attack raises further questions about authorities' ability to secure key facilities in the face of a seemingly resurgent enemy, as a nascent peace process with the Pakistani Taliban lies in tatters.

“Gunmen are exchanging fire with Airport Security Force (ASF) personnel at a checkpost guarding the airport,” an ASF spokesman said.

He continued: “They are moving back, we are trying to nab them,” adding that no security forces had so far been hurt or killed.

Another security official at the scene told AFP that the attack involved around 10 militants.

Flights were suspended once more, having resumed following the previous attack.

“We have suspended all flight operations at Karachi airport and we are evacuating passengers,” said Mashud Tajwar, a spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines.

Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Abid Qaimkhani added that incoming flights had been diverted.

The checkpost is located at the entrance of an ASF camp some 500 metres (yards) away from the main airport premises, or one kilometre from the passenger terminal.

An AFP reporter at the scene said rangers, police and army commandos were arriving at the camp, which has little by way of cover and were taking up positions to engage the militants in an open field.

The assault came as Pakistan launched air strikes on a militant-infested tribal district, killing 15 people in apparent retaliation for Monday's assault.

Ten Taliban fighters, some dressed in military uniform and armed with machine guns, grenades and rocket launchers launched the attack on Sunday night.

Their main objective “was to destroy the aircraft on the ground but there was only minor damage to two to three aircraft,” Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said late Monday.

The Taliban had vowed the first attack was just the beginning as they sought to avenge the death of their former chief Hakimullah Mehsud. (AFP)

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Karachi airport attack: Employees trapped inside cold storage facility

Posted by Unknown on Monday, June 9, 2014 | 0 comments | Leave a comment...

Rescuers are trying to reach cargo workers who remain trapped inside a cold storage facility at Karachi’s international airport a day after a deadly militant attack there.
Authorities are working to rescue seven employees from a private cargo company, said Sindh province Gov. Ishrat Ul Ebad Khan.
Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority said at least five cargo workers were missing. An airport spokesman said two cargo worker’s bodies had been found in a cold storage compartment.
Families of the missing workers had reportedly blocked a busy road leading to the airport, demanding that authorities help find their relatives.
“We will work to investigate any negligence in rescue efforts by the authorities and those found guilty of negligence will be punished accordingly,” Khan said.
The rescue operation unfolded nearly a day after terrorists entered Jinnah International Airport at two spots with a plan to destroy a group of parked airplanes and “bring down our aviation industry,” according to the Pakistani government.
It was late Sunday night, and the militants were armed with guns, grenades and suicide vests. They went into the cargo area, about a kilometer (0.62 miles) from where commercial planes take off.
In a “heroic” effort, security forces “laid down their lives” to block the terminal and stop the attackers, surrounding them and killing all of them, the prime minister’s office said.
There were 10 terrorists, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa said, and two of them detonated suicide vests.
By the time the attack was over, officials said 29 people were dead, including 10 militants. Another 24 people were injured, the military said.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault on the country’s largest and busiest airport.
Speaking from an undisclosed location, Pakistani Taliban commander Abdullah Bahar said the attack was retaliation for the death of former chief Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in November in North Waziristan.
Bahar warned more attacks will follow.
“As long as we are breathing, our attacks will be continuing ’til the end of our lives,” he vowed.
CNN

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Sri Lankan Airlines flight affected by Karachi airport attack

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Sri Lankan Air Lines Flight UL 138 from Colombo to Karachi, Pakistan, that was due to depart at 1.00 p.m. Monday has been canceled following the attack on the Karachi Airport.
Sri Lankan Airlines Public Relations Manager Deepal Perera noted that they have been informed that the Karachi Airport has been temporarily closed, and that flights will resume once the airport reopens.

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Fresh Gunfire at Karachi Airport, 24 Dead in Terror Attack

Posted by Unknown on Sunday, June 8, 2014 | 0 comments | Leave a comment...

Pakistan’s security forces said Monday they have relaunched a military operation at Karachi airport as gunfire resumed several hours after they announced the end of a militant siege that left 24 dead.
“We have relaunched the operation and called in additional troops,” said Sibtain Rizvi, spokesman for the Rangers paramilitary force, adding that one police officer had been injured in the firing.
On Sunday night, heavily armed militants launched an assault on Pakistan’s busiest airport in the southern city of Karachi, leaving at least 24 dead including 10 militants in a six-hour siege that the army quelled at dawn today. (See pics)
Explosions and gunfire rang out as the attackers, equipped with suicide vests, grenades and rocket launchers, battled security forces in one of the most brazen attacks in years in Pakistan’s biggest city.
Authorities said all 10 militants had been killed and that the bodies of 14 victims, including security personnel and four airport workers, had been identified at the city’s main hospital.
“Update: Area cleared. No damage to aircraft, fire visible in pics was not plane but a building, now extinguished. All vital assets intact,” military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said in a tweet.
The attack will raise fresh concerns about Pakistan’s shaky security situation, and questions about how militants were able to penetrate Jinnah International Airport, which serves one of the world’s biggest cities.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the assault, but it came as talks between Pakistan and the Taliban, which began earlier this year, hit an impasse.
Officials said the gunmen entered from two sides of the airport at around 11:00 pm on Sunday — the terminal used for the hajj pilgrimage, and an engineering section close to an old terminal that is no longer in use.
NDTV

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UPDATE: Militants attack Karachi airport; 23 killed in clashes (Video)

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Twenty-three persons are reported to have died after heavily armed gunmen attacked Pakistan’s international airport, in Karachi.
According to foreign media, the siege is reported to be over.
Clashes at Pakistan’s largest and busiest airport left more than 20 people dead after militants armed with grenades stormed into a cargo area Sunday.

Violence erupted at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi around 11:30 p.m. Sunday and raged on for more than five hours as security forces fought off attackers, leaving some passengers trapped inside the airport.
Officials at Jinnah Hospital in Karachi said the dead included eight members of airport security forces, two Pakistan International Airlines employees and one ranger.
Ten militants were also killed in the clashes, said Niaz Abbasi, home secretary of Sindh province. The attack ended Monday morning, and authorities were securing the area, Abbasi said.
It was not immediately clear who the militants were or why they staged the assault.
Clashes broke out after attackers armed with grenades stormed the airport through three entrances, said Ahmad Chinoy, director-general of the citizen’s police liaison committee.
One militant blew himself up in front of an armored car, leaving some people inside the vehicle critically injured, Chinoy said.
A plume of smoke rose over the airport as fires raged in at least two locations. Dozens of ambulances were lined up as police and military troops swarmed the area.
A cargo plane was damaged and set ablaze in the fighting, Chinoy said. The airport’s cargo area is about a kilometer (0.62 miles) away from the area where commercial planes take off.
Foreign Media

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Two planes partially damaged in Karachi Airport attack: Report

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Karachi Airport attack,
Clashes at Pakistan’s largest and busiest airport left more than 20 people dead after militants armed with grenades stormed into a cargo area Sunday.
Two terrorists have been killed while three personnel from the Airport Security Force (ASF) and one each from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have been killed following an armed attack at the Karachi airport.
According to initial reports, four armed attackers hurled grenades and opened fire as they entered the tarmac from fokker gate. This led to an exchange of fire between ASF personnel and the gunmen.
Gunshots and blasts were being heard with intervals outside the airport and flight operations have been suspended.
Two planes were partially damaged in the terrorist attack. TV footage showed one of the planes had caught fire.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif contacted DG Rangers Rizwan Akhtar and directed him to ensure safety of all the passengers at the airport.
Pakistan Army personnel have also arrived to assist ASF and other Law Enforcement Agencies.
According to DG ISPR Asim Bajwa, Pakistan Army troops have started reaching the airport and taking positions. In a series of tweets the DG ISPR added that proper coordination has being ensured for optimum effect and the DG Rangers was present at the airport leading the operation. He added that the operation was being supervised by Corps Commander.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has ordered an inquiry into the attack.
Emergency has been declared at Jinnah, Civil and Abbasi Shaheed Hospitals.
Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah arrived at the airport after the reports of attack.
-GeoTV

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