Adil Najam
A series of explosions and blasts have been reported in Karachi in and around various military installations, including the Mehran Naval Aviation base. Multiple explosions were reported from the PAF area near Shahrah-e-Faisal in Karachi. Flames from within the Air Force compound have been shown on television and reportedly some of the attackers are still inside the military compound where fighting continues.
Details remain sketchy and continue to evolve by the minute. Meanwhile, some are already calling this a “Mumbai-like” operation with choreographed multiple points of attack and mention is being made of possibly hostages being taken within a particular part of the compound.
According to Dawn:
Several explosions have been heard near the PAF Museum on Dalmia Road in Karachi. The force of the blasts have shattered the windows of surrounding buildings, reports said. Heavy gunfire was also reported after the explosion. An eyewitness said that the blasts took place near the gate of Faisal Base.
A large fire and a thick cloud of smoke has also been reported. Police have sealed the area. “We are trying to check the cause of the blast. I cannot say,” said a senior police official. Another police official said gunfire was also reported from inside the base, Reuters reported. “Several blasts were heard inside, the firing is still continuing,” Aslam Khan, a senior police officer at site told AFP.
According to The News:
Four people were killed in an armed attack Sunday by terrorists on PNS Mehran, a heavily guarded base of Pakistan Navy, located along Sharea Faisal, according to a foreign news agency. TV images showed flames rising in the air from PNS Mehran where terrorists blew up a US made P-3C Orion plane of Pakistan Navy.
Five injured in the incident were shifted to a local hospital. Additional personnel of security forces were also seen moving inside PNS Mehran. Electricity of the entire area has also been shut down. Earlier, four blasts were reported from the area near PAF base Faisal.
Ambulances and fire tenders were seen rushing toward the base following the powerful blasts that were heard across a wide radius. Gunshots fired from sophisticated weapons were also heard following the blasts. It is pertinent to mention here that in the previous weeks three buses of Pakistan Navy had been attacked by terrorists in the metropolitan city of Karachi.
Someone please explain me this “martyr” business. Does anyone just die or get killed in Pakistan anymore?
Is there a litmus test to be qualified as a martyr?
@ F K
And you are as far removed from reality that you do not even know that Imran Khan’s rally ended more than 24 hours ago. Speaks volume.
@F K
Spin and hoodwink as best as you can. That’s the best your type can does. Oh, and you made a wrong assumption. I do not ascribe to Imran Khan’s ideology. Happy spinning!
Shez,
Thanks for making your point…which was what exactly? That people who are dark skinned and clean shaven are trained in India (and the ones with light skin and beards were trained by Castro maybe?). Oh and that you are a very intelligent person and anyone who disagrees with you is an Indian or paid by Mossad. I ask you how you can look at someone and tell where they are trained, and your response was that there is racism in America in filing police reports, that Indian society is based on racism and that I am an Indian (after first calling me a westerner). I think there is an Imran Khan rally going on that you would be a perfect fit at. Have fun. There will be many other intellectual heavyweights like yourself over there.
Asim,
I think that tackling this line of thinking (that anything done in Pakistan is the work of Americans/Israelis/Indians) is an important step in order to understand what/who our true enemy is. It is an unfortunate reality that many many Pakistanis refuse to look at these militant groups as the enemy and will defend them to this day by saying that attacks are the works of foreign intelligence agencies. Until we all understand that these militant groups will destroy our entire country and that they can never ever be “strategic assets” or “good Muslims” we will never be able to tackle this menace.
If Pakistan is burning today, it is only because we have kept saying that RAW and MOSSAD are behind terrorism in our country instead of addressing the issue head-on (the recent wikileaks disclosures about Pakistan say a lot about both our politicians and our army and how they are playing the people for fools). If you think this is about my ego, you are sadly mistaken my friend. I don’t need to protect my ego by anonymously posting to a blog. The Taliban killed 80 cadets last week and attacked a naval base yesterday destroying millions of dollars worth of equipment and there are people who still will not accept that they are the biggest threat to the country.
Your comment that we are arguing while Pakistan is burning is cynical. If I stopped arguing would Pakistan stop burning? Or I could say, why are you posting a comment while Pakistan is burning? What do you think the point of a comments section on this blog is anyway?