At least 29 people were martyred and more than 30 sustained injuries when 13 heavily armed terrorists launched assailant on a mosque situated at Inqilab Road in Badaber during morning prayers on Friday.
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Gunmen stormed the airbase, about 10km south of Peshawar in an attack, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman said was retaliation for bombing raids on their bases along the Afghan border.
However, integrated response by Defence Service Group, SSG commandoes and police force contained the attackers and killed all them within 50 metres of the gates, he said, adding that the attackers dispersed into two groups after breaching the security cordon.
Six militants have been killed in an exchange of fire with security forces.
The Pakistani Taliban has been waging a bloody insurgency to impose its extreme brand of Islamic fundamentalism on the country and to avenge military attacks against its bases in northwestern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
MWC News’ Syed Shah, reporting from Peshawar, said Banned Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack.
That commander is thought to have been involved in the massacre of more than 140 people, majority children, at an army school in Peshawar in December.
Among the 29 people killed by the militants, 23 were from Pakistan air force and three from army – a captain and two soldiers.
Earlier, Bajwa said 13 attackers were killed in the assault.
Islamabad, Pakistan Militants struck an aviation based armed forces base Friday in northwest Pakistan, killing 16 individuals praying inside a mosque. A gunbattle was still underway and three attackers had been killed so far, he said.
Rescue sources, however, said 22 people have been injured, out of whom 20 have been shifted to CMH Peshawar and two have been taken to Lady Reading Hospital (LRH). An emergency has been declared in both hospitals.
The facility that terrorists attacked was not operational and had been used in the past by U.S. for surveillance and espionage activities against former Soviet Union.
The air force has played a key role in the operation against militant hideouts in the tribal areas on the Afghan borders, pounding targets in countless sorties since the onslaught began previous year.
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Bajwa said that the Badhaber attack was planned and being controlled from Afghanistan.
