PESHAWAR:
Claiming responsibility for the high-profile attack on the Jinnah
International Airport in Karachi, the Pakistani Taliban said that they
had planned to hijack the aircraft and to use them for hitting targets
at another place.
“We proudly claim responsibility for the attack on the Karachi airport. It was revenge for the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone attack in Miranshah with the help of Pakistani government. This is the beginning of our attacks we planned against the government and important security installations,” said Shahidullah Shahid, the spokesman of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Another senior member of the Taliban also claimed that one of the aims behind storming the airport was to hijack the aircraft and to use them against targets. “We started preparations for the attack a few months ago and we knew that planes from around 30-40 countries are coming here. There were different reasons why we chose to attack the airport in Karachi. First, as I stated aircraft of 30-40 countries come here and it would send a message all over the world that Pakistan is an insecure place for flying. Secondly, we wanted to damage Pakistan economically. We wanted the country suffer losses but not the people. And then we wanted to convey a message that the Taliban have not been defeated but are still active,” the TTP leader explained. He claimed to have damaged about 12 aircraft there.
Also, he said the Karachi city and the airport there were considered to be the most secured installation in the country, and they decided to launch their strikes from the same place and give a message that no place was beyond their reach. “We had engineers and skilled people in the squad that stormed the airport. They knew how to operate a plane,” the TTP leader claimed.
He said some other ‘brotherly Jihadi organisations’ had helped them in the attack on the Karachi airport. However, when asked, he did not reject the involvement of al-Qaeda. “Besides other Jihadi organisations, al-Qaeda people are our brothers and we admit that we carried out this attack with the help of our other brotherly Mujahideen groups but it’s not important to us to name them publicly,” the Taliban leader argued.
Asked about the targets, the Taliban commander said they don’t mention their targets before attacking them. “As I stated, hijacking the planes was one part of our strategy of attacking the airport,” the militant commander noted.
Also, the Taliban issued a statement in Urdu language about the Karachi attack, which said the attack began at 10pm on Sunday night. They praised their suicide bombers and called them ‘eagles’ for successfully entering the airport. “During the overnight fighting with thousands of Pakistani security forces, our fighters used to set ablaze their targets at the airport. In the fighting, hundreds of security personnel were killed and dozens of aircraft were destroyed. We selected the target (Karachi airport), as we wanted to inflict heavy losses on the government and fewer fatalities to the people. And the Mujahideen succeeded 100 percent in this technique,” the Taliban claimed in the statement.
The Taliban claimed that they were serious and had started the peace talks with sincerity with the government as Hakimullah Mehsud had clarified during his last interview. “But we had made it clear initially that we would not allow the government to use the peace talks with the Taliban for their political and military purposes which the previous governments had done. The government responded to our sincere offer for peace talks to the killing of our leader Maulana Waliur Rahman and Hakimullah Mehsud, by conducting an announced military operation in the country against us and by killing our jailed colleagues and throwing their bodies on roads and bombing the innocent tribal people,” the Taliban stated in the statement.
It said that the Pakistani Taliban and their ‘brotherly Jihadi organisations’ were serious and sincere in talks but alleged that the government had responded to their offer in the form of preparing a military operation against them.
They announced to support Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan and the tribal people in their fighting against the Pakistani security forces. “The attack on the Karachi airport is a message to the Pakistan government to avoid the use of force as the Taliban are still ready for holding serious peace talks with the government,” the Taliban said.
“We proudly claim responsibility for the attack on the Karachi airport. It was revenge for the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone attack in Miranshah with the help of Pakistani government. This is the beginning of our attacks we planned against the government and important security installations,” said Shahidullah Shahid, the spokesman of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Another senior member of the Taliban also claimed that one of the aims behind storming the airport was to hijack the aircraft and to use them against targets. “We started preparations for the attack a few months ago and we knew that planes from around 30-40 countries are coming here. There were different reasons why we chose to attack the airport in Karachi. First, as I stated aircraft of 30-40 countries come here and it would send a message all over the world that Pakistan is an insecure place for flying. Secondly, we wanted to damage Pakistan economically. We wanted the country suffer losses but not the people. And then we wanted to convey a message that the Taliban have not been defeated but are still active,” the TTP leader explained. He claimed to have damaged about 12 aircraft there.
Also, he said the Karachi city and the airport there were considered to be the most secured installation in the country, and they decided to launch their strikes from the same place and give a message that no place was beyond their reach. “We had engineers and skilled people in the squad that stormed the airport. They knew how to operate a plane,” the TTP leader claimed.
He said some other ‘brotherly Jihadi organisations’ had helped them in the attack on the Karachi airport. However, when asked, he did not reject the involvement of al-Qaeda. “Besides other Jihadi organisations, al-Qaeda people are our brothers and we admit that we carried out this attack with the help of our other brotherly Mujahideen groups but it’s not important to us to name them publicly,” the Taliban leader argued.
Asked about the targets, the Taliban commander said they don’t mention their targets before attacking them. “As I stated, hijacking the planes was one part of our strategy of attacking the airport,” the militant commander noted.
Also, the Taliban issued a statement in Urdu language about the Karachi attack, which said the attack began at 10pm on Sunday night. They praised their suicide bombers and called them ‘eagles’ for successfully entering the airport. “During the overnight fighting with thousands of Pakistani security forces, our fighters used to set ablaze their targets at the airport. In the fighting, hundreds of security personnel were killed and dozens of aircraft were destroyed. We selected the target (Karachi airport), as we wanted to inflict heavy losses on the government and fewer fatalities to the people. And the Mujahideen succeeded 100 percent in this technique,” the Taliban claimed in the statement.
The Taliban claimed that they were serious and had started the peace talks with sincerity with the government as Hakimullah Mehsud had clarified during his last interview. “But we had made it clear initially that we would not allow the government to use the peace talks with the Taliban for their political and military purposes which the previous governments had done. The government responded to our sincere offer for peace talks to the killing of our leader Maulana Waliur Rahman and Hakimullah Mehsud, by conducting an announced military operation in the country against us and by killing our jailed colleagues and throwing their bodies on roads and bombing the innocent tribal people,” the Taliban stated in the statement.
It said that the Pakistani Taliban and their ‘brotherly Jihadi organisations’ were serious and sincere in talks but alleged that the government had responded to their offer in the form of preparing a military operation against them.
They announced to support Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan and the tribal people in their fighting against the Pakistani security forces. “The attack on the Karachi airport is a message to the Pakistan government to avoid the use of force as the Taliban are still ready for holding serious peace talks with the government,” the Taliban said.
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