Pakistani Taliban Attacks Military Base Near Peshawar

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack but said the militants allowed women and children to leave the area safely.

However, details about how the Taliban managed to make their way into the mosque, which is inside the compound walls, and gun down 16 people during prayers were sketchy.

Sixteen of Friday’s victims were at morning prayers, and a captain died leading the counter-attack against the raiders, 13 of whom were killed.

Though Pakistani security officials say they have arrested or killed thousands of Islamist militants this year, Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah remains at large and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. The terrorists had been engaged and contained around the guard room area of the camp.

The attacks were foiled by security forces that resulted in 12 militant deaths, while 12 people including 11 security personnel and one terrorist were injured.

Gen. Asim Bajwa, said, “The attack was planned in and controlled from Afghanistan”.

sGen. Bajwa said 16 persons offering Nawaz to God at a mosque inside the air base, 10 km south of Peshawar, were shot dead. Peshawar has suffered the most in the war on terror but the latest attack came after a lull of several months. The army has been their primary targets recently but Christians, Hindus and Muslims have also been attacked and their places of worship are subjected to criminal acts of violence.

The assault shows the Taliban retain the capability to mount devastating attacks despite a military campaign and a government crackdown against them following the massacre of more than 150 people, mostly children, at an army-run school last December.

Injured persons have been shifted to a military hospital in Peshawar and two have been taken to Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).

The attack took worshippers unexpectedly, stated Mohammad Ikram of the Pakistani Air Force, who was in the mosque on the time. The last deadly attack in the city came in February when three heavily armed Taliban militants stormed a Shia mosque, killing 21 people. It’s unknown if other attackers got away.

The DG ISPR said that said the integrated and coordinated operation of the PAF, commandoes and Quick Response Force (QRF) helped foil the nefarious plan of the terrorists.

The Pakistani Army has been carrying out a major offensive against local and foreign militants in North Waziristan, a northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

He posted footage of a number of the attackers’ bloodied our bodies in the uniform of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary, black conventional Pakistani garments often known as shalwar khameez.