ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have stepped up security at military and other sensitive installations following the weekend attack by militants on an air base that damaged three grounded aircraft and destroyed a fuel tanker, security officials said Monday.
A recently formed group, Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, has claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack in Mianwali, a city in eastern Punjab province, where police have repulsed multiple attacks by another group, the Pakistani Taliban, in recent months.
Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan emerged earlier this year and has claimed multiple attacks, including the July 12 one on a security post in southwest Pakistan in which nine soldiers and a female passerby were killed.
The military asserted that Saturday’s attack at the Mianwali Training Air Base was largely thwarted because of a “swift and effective response” from security forces.
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press, taken Saturday hours after the attack, show one aircraft stand at the base destroyed by fire, while others appear to have sustained damage.
The military said it killed all nine attackers.
Authorities have increased security at military and other sensitive installations on intelligence reports about more possible attacks, said two security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
The Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, have not commented on the attack. The group is a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.
Pakistan steps up security at military and other sensitive installations after attack on an air base
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Pakistan steps up security at military and other sensitive installations after attack on an air base
- Militants stormed an air base in Pakistan’s eastern Mianwali city on Saturday
- Army said attack was thwarted due to “swift and effective response” against militants
Suicide bomber attacks security check post in northwestern Pakistan, kills civilian
- Sixteen civilians, two security personnel wounded in blast near the Afghan border town of Miran Shah
- Attack comes amid rising militancy as Pakistan steps up military campaign across the Afghan border
PESHAWAR: A vehicle-borne suicide bomber targeted a security check post in Pakistan’s northwestern district of North Waziristan on Friday, killing at least one civilian and wounding 16 others, several critically, police and hospital officials said.
The attack struck the Chashma Sarband check post on the Bannu–Miran Shah road in Miran Shah, the main town in the restive tribal district bordering Afghanistan, police said.
The blast comes amid a resurgence of militant attacks in Pakistan’s northwestern border regions and growing tensions with neighboring Afghanistan, where Islamabad says armed groups responsible for violence in Pakistan are based.
“Sixteen civilians were among those wounded, four of whom were in critical condition,” said Dr. Asif Iqbal, the medical superintendent at the district headquarters hospital in Miran Shah.
“One person has died at the hospital,” he said, adding that more injured victims were expected to be brought in.
Police spokesman Fazal Khan said the vehicle-borne suicide attack targeted the security checkpoint along the busy highway.
Two members of the security forces were also wounded in the explosion, he said.
Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sohail Afridi condemned the attack and ordered authorities to submit a report on the incident.
“The incident in which civilians were injured in the Miran Shah Chashma check post explosion is tragic,” he said in a statement.
Afridi directed officials to ensure the best possible medical treatment for the injured and said emergency services and hospital staff had been placed on high alert.
“Cowardly acts of terrorism cannot weaken the resolve of the government and the public,” he added.
Pakistan has witnessed a rise in militant violence in recent months, particularly in regions bordering Afghanistan, where officials say groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, operate from bases across the frontier.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities of sheltering militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies.
The tensions have escalated further after Pakistan launched air strikes inside Afghanistan earlier this year targeting what it described as militant camps, triggering cross-border clashes between the two neighbors and prompting Islamabad to expand military operations along the frontier.
Pakistan says the campaign, dubbed “Ghazab Lil Haq,” will continue until militant threats from across the border are neutralized.
