Klokken 23 søndag kveld slo Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) til mot den internasjonale flyplassen i Karachi. 28 er så langt meldt drept.

De militære sa etter 12 timers kamper at de hadde kontroll, men ikke før meldingen var ute så brøt det ut kamper inne i flyplassterminalen.

Taliban sa angrepet var en hevn for Hakimullah Mehsud, som ble drept av en drone i november.

Da Nawaz Sharif ble statsminister lovet han forhandlinger med Taliban og tilsvarende grupper. Men nå sier Taliban at de ikke tror noe på dem.

TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid also dismissed the Pakistani government’s recent offer of a new round of peace talks as a ruse, and promised more attacks to come.

«Pakistan used peace talks as a tool of war,» he told AFP. «We have yet to take revenge for the deaths of hundreds of innocent tribal women and children in Pakistani air strikes.

«It’s just the beginning, we have taken revenge for one (Mehsud), we have to take revenge for hundreds.»

Talks to end the TTP’s bloody seven-year insurgency in Pakistan have been underway since February, after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned to power last year, but little clear progress has resulted.

The assault will raise fresh concerns about Pakistan’s shaky security situation, and questions about how militants were able to penetrate the airport, which serves one of the world’s biggest cities.

Pakistan har hatt store problemer med å manne seg opp til et oppgjør med jihadistene. De ble skapt av Pakistans sikkerhetstjeneste, ISI, som har brukt dem i Afghanistan og mot USA og India. Men gjøkungen ble stor og fant ut at den også ville omforme Pakistan. Myndighetene er handlingslammet.

«The federal government is not mentally, psychologically and ideologically prepared to take action against the militants,» said political and defence analyst Hasan Askari, who said that Sharif’s peace drive looked in bigger doubt than ever.

«If the government still insists on dialogue with the militants, then they will run into difficulties with the military,» Askari warned.

 

Et stort problem har vært jihadistenes infiltrasjon av militære og andre statlige og offentlige institusjoner.

Hvordan kom Taliban seg inn på flyplassen?

Det er ikke første gang det skjer.

Officials said the gunmen entered from two sides of the airport at around 11pm on Sunday — the terminal used for the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and an engineering section close to an old terminal that is no longer in use.

An AFP reporter witnessed three huge blasts as suicide bombers detonated their explosives.

Smoke was seen billowing from the airport as fires raged close to planes parked on the runway, while militants clashed with the airport’s security force who were backed by police, paramilitary squads and elite commandos.

Taliban militants have carried out a series of similar raids since rising up against the Pakistani state in 2007.

In 2011, Taliban gunmen attacked the Mehran naval base, which lies close to the Karachi airport, destroying two US-made Orion aircraft and killing 10 personnel in a 17-hour siege.

The group also carried out a raid on Pakistan’s military headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi in 2009, leaving 23 dead including 11 troops and three hostages.

The latest trouble came with tensions already high in Karachi over the arrest in Britain of the exiled leader of Pakistan’s MQM party, which dominates politics in the vast city — Pakistan’s economic hub and main port through which NATO has long shipped supplies to Afghanistan.

Arrestasjonen i Storbritannia viser at det nå like gjerne kan være begivenheter i Europa som utløser terror i Pakistan.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Karachi-airport-siege-over-28-dead-in-Pak-Taliban-terror-attack/articleshow/36290790.cms