Tuesday 24 June 2014

Pakistan plane fired on during Peshawar landing


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Gunmen have opened fire on a passenger plane arriving at Peshawar airport in Pakistan, media and police say.

The Pakistan International Airlines plane - flight PK756 - was carrying some 178 passengers on a flight from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

One person has died from their wounds and and at least two were injured.

A deadly attack by militants on Karachi airport this month sparked an army offensive against insurgent positions in the North Waziristan region.

Hunt for gunmen

Pakistan's Dawn newspaper said security forces had cordoned off the Bacha Khan airport site in Peshawar and had launched a hunt for the gunmen.

It reported that an injured flight attendant had been taken to hospital but that one woman had died of her injuries on the way.

Police officer Dost Muhammad Khan told Associated Press five bullets had hit the plane.

The attack on Karachi airport left nearly 40 people dead

The jet suffered a heavy landing, injuring a number of other passengers.

PIA official Mohammad Kifayatullah Khan told Reuters he had entered the plane and saw the fatally injured woman on her seat.

He said: "All the passengers were panicked. Some of them wanted to get out as soon as possible because they were afraid of fire inside the plane."

Pakistan's army launched the offensive in North Waziristan a week ago, bombarding Taliban targets in the tribal area.

Some 350,000 people have since been displaced, many arriving at the town of Bannu in overloaded vehicles.

Local officials say they are doing everything they can to deal with an unfolding humanitarian crisis.

The offensive began after the attack on Karachi airport, which an Uzbek militant group and the Pakistani Taliban said they had carried out.

At least 39 people were killed in the raid on Jinnah international airport, including all 10 gunmen.

The attack signalled an end to an already faltering peace process between the government and the Pakistani Taliban.


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