Just three weeks after American special forces entered Pakistan undetected to kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad cantonment, the Taliban exposed the Pakistan military’s inability to safeguard one of its heavily-protected facilities when a small group of terrorists stormed into Karachi’s Mehran naval base late Sunday night
and destroyed two sophisticated P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft supplied by the United States before Pakistani forces reacted.
Pakistani forces finally managed to take control of the naval air station after a 16-hour gunbattle with the Taliban gunmen who launched their brazen attack to avenge Bin Laden’s killing. Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik acknowledged later that just six terrorists were believed to be involved in the attack, and not 10 to 15 men as earlier reported.
Altogether 14 people were reported killed, including 10 military personnel. Twenty others were injured in the attack on the naval airbase, close to Karachi airport, that started 10.30 pm Sunday (11 pm IST), a naval spokesman said. The injured were all hospitalised.
Mr Malik said later three terrorists were killed in the gunbattle while the body of a fourth was believed buried under the rubble of a collapsed wall. Two other terrorists, incredibly, managed to escape, he added.
Official sources said several other aircraft were damaged in the attack. The destruction of the aircraft was what alerted the Pakistan forces that an attack was in progress. The raid has cast fresh doubt on the military’s ability to protect its bases given the earlier raid on the Army headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009, in which several people had been held hostage for hours.
The terrorists used rocket-propelled grenades as well as hand grenades to destroy the Orions and other military equipment at the base. The interior minister, Mr Malik, said 17 foreigners — including 11 Chinese and six Americans — were inside the base at the time, and all were evacuated safely. Earlier reports had claimed the terrorists had taken some foreigners hostage to shield themselves, but this was denied by Navy officials.
It was suspected in some quarters that the infiltrators had been helped by some people inside the base, but this was strongly denied by the security forces. Unofficial reports claimed the terrorists had camouflaged themselves with dark outfits and fake identity cards had been found in their possession.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the naval base attack, saying it was to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden. It said earlier, while the battle was still raging, that its fighters had enough ammunition and food to last for three days. A Pakistan Taliban spokesman said it had sent 15-20 suicide bombers equipped to fight for a week, and added: “We had already warned after Osama’s martyrdom that we will carry out even bigger attacks.”
Mr Malik said the “terrorists” had sneaked into the base from three points adjacent to residential areas. “It is not just an attack on a Navy establishment, it is an attack on Pakistan”, Mr Malik said, warning that those who had sympathy for the Taliban and Al Qaeda should instead “join hands with us to save our country”. He added that a joint team would investigate and fix responsibility.