SRINAGAR: For the second time in two days, Pakistan’s largest and busiest airport was forced to shut down after militants launched a brazen attack on airport security forces. Tuesday’s assault targeted the Airport Security Forces academy near Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, reports quoting the airport’s manager Saima Mohsin in Karachi said. On Sunday night a suicide into the fortified airport cargo had killed more than 25 people including security men.
The number of gunmen who attacked the academy’s entrance was unknown but they were met with an armed response, the officials said adding that the attackers fled, and no one was killed in the attack. Once again, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.
“This wave of attacks will be continuing in retaliation for the shelling and atrocities of the government,” TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said by phone Tuesday from an undisclosed location. Ten militants stormed the same airport’s cargo area late Sunday night, leading to an hours-long siege that left 36 people dead, including the assailants.
The Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for that assault, saying 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.
The militant group, also known as the TTP, had warned of more carnage starting Tuesday. Shahid said earlier this week that the Pakistani Taliban would engage “in a full-out war with the Pakistani state, starting on June 10.”
Hours before the renewed violence in Karachi, the Pakistani military launched a deadly assault targeting nine militant hideouts Tuesday. At least 15 militants were killed in the airstrikes on Khyber Agency, in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, the Pakistani military said.
The Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, has long conducted an insurgency against the Pakistani government.
“Their primary target is the Pakistani state and its military,” said Raza Rumi of the Jinnah Institute, a Pakistani think tank.
The United States has offered Pakistan that it could assist in probing the fresh Karachi attacks.
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