At least 42 people, among them 13 terrorists, were killed on Friday when heavily armed Pakistani Taliban guerrillas stormed an air base near Peshawar and a mosque inside it during morning prayers.
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He said that the terrorists resorted to firing while entering the premises, armed with rocket launchers and grenades, adding that the personnel in the guard room gave a befitting response to them.
Pakistan today said it will share crucial evidence of involvement of Afghanistan-based Taliban militants in the deadly terror attack on its air force base in Peshawar with the neighbouring country but decided against lodging a strong protest.
Pakistani authorities said Saturday that police have rounded up dozens of suspects in connection with the assault on the air force base, which was carried out by two groups of militants disguising themselves as members of government paramilitary forces.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
The army said that the group of insurgents launched the assault at dawn at the residential compound near Peshawar, the gateway to tribal regions on the Afghan border that have always been a haven for militants.
Chief of the army’s media wing, Maj Gen Asim Bajwa, in a press conference after the attack had stopped short of saying the Afghan government was involved in the attack.
He said that six militants were killed and two soldiers wounded.
The attack took worshippers by surprise, said Mohammad Ikram of the Pakistani Air Force, who was in the mosque at the time. Bajwa said 10 soldiers, including two officers, were among the wounded.
The editorial said that the message sent by the Badaber camp attack is clear: the TTP is still strong enough to mount an organised attack on a key military installation.
According to the DG ISPR, a 13-member squad attacked a mosque inside the base, but claimed all the militants were killed in the fighting. Locals said that they heard several explosions inside the base during Friday’s wee hours.
“The injured were admitted at combined military hospital Peshawar.” he said.
For more detail on the attack, and a separate U.S. drone strike in South Waziristan, see Al Jazeera’s report.
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In that video, Umar Mansoor had threatened that there would be more such “revenge” attacks if the military operation was not stopped.
