NINE heavily armed terrorists attacked a Pakistan Air Force training base in Punjab province early Saturday and all of them were “sent to hell”, the Army said, a day after 17 soldiers were killed in three separate terror strikes in the country. The Mianwali Training Air Base of Pakistan Air Force was attacked by nine terrorists, the Pakistan Army said in a statement, confirming that some damage was done to three already phased-out non-operational aircraft during the attack. The military confirmed that the “combing and clearance operation at PAF Training Airbase Mianwali has been concluded and all nine terrorists have been sent to hell”. The operation was launched to “eliminate any potential threat in the surrounding area following the cowardly and failed terrorist attack on the base this morning”, the statement said. The Army said while no damage had been done to any of the PAF’s functional operational assets, some damage was done to three already phased-out non-operational aircraft during the attack.

 

The Tehreek-i-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), a newly-emerged militant group that is an affiliate of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to the media. Condemning the attack, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar said, “Any attempt to undermine our security will meet with unwavering resistance.” The attack comes hours after a series of terror strikes killed at least 17 soldiers in the restive Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

 

Fourteen Pakistani soldiers were killed on Friday when militants ambushed two vehicles carrying security forces from Pasni to the Ormara area of Gwadar district in the restive south-western Balochistan province. Friday’s toll is the heaviest suffered by the military in Balochistan province this year where separatists and militants have stepped up their attacks since a ceasefire deal between TTP and the Pakistan Government ended in November 2022. Hours before the Gwadar attack, a series of bomb blasts targeting convoys of police and security forces killed one soldier and five others and wounded 24 others in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Two soldiers were killed in another attack in Lakki Marwat district in the same province. Interim interior minister Sarfraz Bugti said the names of terrorists involved in Friday’s and Saturday’s attacks “must have been different but the enemy behind the scenes is the same”. He termed the current wave of terror a “conspiracy to make Pakistan a target of uncertainty and instability once again”. Saturday’s attack is not the first time that terrorists have attacked a military installation in Pakistan.