Taliban again attack main airport in Pakistan

The Taliban have struck again Tuesday International Airport Karachi, the commercial and financial center of Pakistan. Less than 24 hours after security forces had just battled the first assault, the action sends a powerful message of defiance to the central government and highlights the weakness of this to combat the insurgency.

“We accept responsibility for another successful attack against the Government,” said Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid. “We are reaching our goals and continue to execute many more such attacks.”

At about eleven o’clock, three or four armed men on board a couple of bikes opened fire on a checkpoint near the academy that the Airport Security Force (ASF) has on campus, five hundred meters from the main entrance. They had not been 24 hours that troops put an end to a first assault that lasted all night from Sunday to Monday. In fact, just a few hours before had found the charred bodies of seven others, bringing the death toll rises to at least 37, including 12 terrorists.

“The attackers fled after firing and the situation is now under control,” FSA spokesman, Colonel Tahir Ali was quick to declare. The guards responded to the fire before going after attackers, apparently without success.

The military leaders trying to downplay the incident, which has caused no casualties. However, analysts interpret the boldness of the action as a declaration of open war emboldened the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). In his message to the media, the group has said that today’s attack was his response to the shelling that first thing in the morning Pakistani aviation had wanted to punish the first assault.

Following these tactics in recent months, the military had bombed several targets early in the Tirah Valley in the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan where the Taliban take refuge. According to an official statement, “Nine terrorists shelters” destroyed and killed 15 of them. Although there is no way to verify these data, the vicious cycle of retaliation and revenge highlights the dilemma faced by the central government to respond to the insurgent challenge, always afraid of the consequences and the popular reaction.

On the one hand, the Taliban accused the government of being killing innocents, an argument which garners them the sympathy of the population. However, Western allies Islamabad will require deployment of troops in North Waziristan, the tribal region where rebels are sheltering as state authority has spread to the rest. Hence, the attempt of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to reach a negotiated solution to the conflict, something that now seems out of place.

But beyond these considerations, some analysts point out that the Army continues to see the issue from the perspective of wider relations with its neighbors. This border region is a strategic area for influence over Afghanistan when NATO is about to withdraw troops.

At first glance, the two attacks this week in Karachi give the impression that the Taliban have increased their logistical capacity, acting many miles from their safe havens along the Afghan border. However, its presence in Karachi dates back years. Entire neighborhoods of this megalopolis of 18 million inhabitants are populated by Pashtuns that have come in search of work, or to escape the fighting since the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan in 2001 shaking their hometowns. The insurgents found in them the perfect hideaway.

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Posted by Khalil Khan on Jun 10 2014. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.