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By Arif Qoreshi
Islamabad: The Pakistan Air Force base inside the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar attacked by Uzbek militants belonging to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan on Saturday night. Peshawar air port is jointly used by civilian airlines and the Pakistan air force. Five militants and four civilian killed in the attack, while more than 40 were injured.
The militants wanted to enter inside the air base but they did not succeed. The spokes man of the Pakistan air force group Captain Tariq Mahmood confirmed none of its planes has been damaged and no militant has been able to penetrate inside the air field.
Although present attack of Taliban on Peshawar air force base looks like failed but the claim of government also proved wrong who says that they have control the militants.
On the other hand Taliban proved that they can attack any where in Pakistan on civilian and military targets with out any hurdle despite multiple army offensives targeting their tribal areas.
Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said the movement had sent 10 suicide bombers to attack the airport, “Our target was the Pakistani Air Force base, not the Peshawar airport,” and he declared they will continue attacks against their enemies.
The chief military spokesman Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa claimed that all the militants who killed in the attack were Uzbek. The Taliban have been known to cooperate with militants from Uzbekistan in the past.
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is a declared terrorist organization by UN in 2003, and they have close links with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and they conduct attacks in the northern region of Afghanistan against NATO forces and in Central Asia Countries.
The Peshawar air force is the third major military base attacked by the Taliban in past 18 months. In august 2001 militants attacked the Minhas air force base at Kamra, In that attack seven attackers and one soldiers were killed but the Taliban fighters then able to damaged very expensive Sweden made Saab -2000 aircraft.
The second attack was on may 2001 at the headquarter of the Pakistan Navy’s in Karachi. In which 15 attackers killed 18 military personnel and two very precious P3C Orion aircraft were destroyed.
