PIA aircraft comes under fire in Peshawar

 

PESHAWAR: A woman was killed and two persons, including a flight steward, were wounded when a passenger flight of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) came under attack while landing at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar on Tuesday night.
The woman passenger, who is said to be a foreigner, died of wounds en route to the Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar Cantonment, reports said.Sources said the PIA flight from Riyadh (No PK-756) wasabout to land in Peshawar when unidentified attackers opened fire on the aircraft. The bullets hit a woman, a steward and another person.

The firing panicked the passengers but the pilot safely landed the aircraft. Ambulances and security personnel encircled the parked aircraft.The wounded were taken to the CMH. The spokesman for the PIA confirmed the attack, saying that three persons had sustained injuries in the firing incident and were shifted to the CMH.

The attack was the first of its kind. There were a number of attacks on the airport in the past but it was for the first time that an aircraft was hit and its passengers were wounded.A search operation was launched in the Pishtakhara and Sarband areas after the attack while more security personnel were deployed around the airport and the airbase. While landing in Peshawar, all aircraft come close to the tribal areas and the nearby settled towns.

PM, COAS visit Peshawar Corps HQ

 

PESHAWAR: Expressing satisfaction over the success of the ongoing operation “Zarb-e-Azb”, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the pace of success of armed forces in the operation was very encouraging. “We will win this war,” he vowed.
He said this while visiting the Peshawar Corps Headquarters on Friday where he was briefed by corp commander, Peshawar, on Zarb-e-Azb. The prime minister was accompanied by Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Raheel Sharif, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi, Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak, Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Federal Minister for State and Frontier Regions (Safron) Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch.

The prime minister said that the entire nation was supporting the armed forces in the war against terror and will overcome every challenge. “The goal of achieving peace is not very far and I have full confidence that with the help of Allah Almighty, we will win this war,” he said.

He was briefed on different stages of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA) and the status of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in bordering areas of KP with Fata.

He said the government and armed forces would ensure the provision of all possible help to the affected people and the federal government will provide required resources in this regard. Earlier, the prime minister laid a floral wreath at the Yadgar-e-Shuhada at the headquarters of 11 Corps and prayed for the departed souls. Nawaz also held meetings with KP Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan and Chief Minister Pervaiz Khan Khattak at the Governor’s House, Peshawar, before returning to Islamabad.

Kidnapped LHV found dead in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: A lady health visitor (LHV) who used to perform duty as polio vaccinator was found dead near the Pashto Daaman after eight armed men broke into her house, tied her spouse and five children and kidnapped her from the Gulozai village on the night between Sunday and Monday.

The attack is considered to be the worst of its kind against vaccinators if it is proven to be a polio-related act. The family has made it clear that they have no enmity with anyone.

Senior police officials, however, believe the initial evidence collected in the case indicated that the incident was not an attack on the polio worker but was related to some other issue. The officials didn’t disclose the motive for the murder.

Villagers and family members said Salma Farooq, along with her children and spouse, was asleep in her house in Gulozai, located in the limits of the Chamkani Police Station, when eight armed men broke into her house. The gunmen allegedly fastened her spouse and children, including three daughters and two sons, and picked up the woman, who is an LHV at a local Basic Health Unit.

Villagers from Gulozai and nearby villages blocked the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway for more than an hour on Monday morning to protest the kidnapping of Salma Farooq, the wife of Mohammad Karim. The angry villagers demanded her safe recovery.

However, the police recovered her mutilated body from near the Shah Alam River in Pashto Daaman village a couple of hours after the protesters reopened the road. Police said there were signs of severe torture on her body before she was shot dead.

Despite the police denial, most of the villagers, especially the families of the vaccinators in the nearby towns and all over Peshawar, believed that it was an attack on polio workers. Over 60 people have so far been killed all over the country while several sustained injuries in attacks on polio vaccinators and police and other security personnel guarding them since December 2012. Most of the attacks were carried out in Peshawar.

Around 4,500 policemen in Peshawar and other districts have been guarding the vaccination teams during the weekly immunisation campaigns on Sunday under the Sehat Ka Insaf programme, which is mostly focusing on eradicating the poliovirus.

3 killed in Peshawar roof collapse

PESHAWAR: Three people including a woman and a child were killed when a roof of a house collapsed in Peshawar on late Sunday night, Geo News reported.

Rescue sources said that a couple and their child were trapped under the debris as the roof collapsed. They were recovered from the debris after hectic efforts and shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital where they succumbed to their injuries.

The incident took place in Sadar area of the provincial capital.

5 rockets land in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: The provincial metropolis was rocked with blasts around midnight on Tuesday when five rockets landed in various parts of the city.
Police said two rockets landed inside Bacha Khan International Airport, but no damage was reported. The rockets did not hit any major infrastructure but landed in a green patch.
The three other rockets hit Tehkal, Regi Model Town and University Town. The one in University Town went through the shutters of a car showroom, damaging around five or six cars.
“There are no reports of any casualties in the attack but the resultant blasts caused yet another wave of panic,” said an official of the Tehkal police station. All the artillery rockets were fired from the direction of Shakas, Khyber Agency, he added, stating that their target was the airport but three of the rockets landed outside the base while two landed in the base.
According to a Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) official, the warhead of the rocket which hit the car showroom did not explode completely, averting greater damage. The remaining explosives were defused by the BDS.