Attack on PAF Base Minhas

[shree835]

By carrying out a terrorist strike against the Minhas Air Base, the Tehreek-e-Taliban targeted perhaps the most important base-cum-aeronautical complex of Pakistan Air Force.

“It is like having Ambala air base with HAL Nashik and HAL Kanpur thrown in together. It is the most important PAF facility,” said a recently retired Indian Air Force chief.


Among other things, said another retired Indian air chief, the base serves as the place for preparing Pakistan’s nuclear aerial delivery platforms and systems.

The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex adjacent to the base is the site for the fighter upgrade programs for Pakistan’s F-16s, Mirage IIs, Chengdu FC-10s and the Chengdu F-6 fighters and Shenyang FT-6 trainers.

The base is also being used to test-fly the JF-17 Thunderbird multi-role fighter. This fighter, which Pakistan has developed in conjunction with China and is equipped with a Russian RD-93 engine, is likely to be the mainstay of the air force.

The Kamra base hosts the 33 multi-role fighter wing of the air force, one squadron of JF-17 and one squadron of FT-6 trainers. The airbase also houses the country’s crucial airborne early warning systems and other electronic warfare planes.

The PAF was able to counter the attack within hours in large part because the base was on high alert because of Independence Day celebrations and intelligence reports that a large attack was being planned.

Why Taliban targeted Minhas base : Indian Perspective | idrw.org

 

[iPhone]

It's a crying, crying shame that brazen attacks like this continually happen and the perpetrators are allowed to live. TTP sits in Pakistan, plans and kills innocent Pakistanis and its mouthpiece spokesman keeps on taunting Pak army and no action is taken against them.

They grow bolder and bolder. They attack check posts, take Pak soldiers prisoners, cut their heads off, show them to the entire world and boldly claim they'll do it again, stop us if you can but this gutless and incompetent bunch in the higher up don't flinch.

They attack Pak military bases, destroy expensive assets, brave soldiers die in the line of duty yet these gutless generals continue to watch the country bleed at he hands of these merciless thugs.

Where is their courage, their bravery, their intellect and most of all balls to take difficult decisions. How dare they show their faces to the nation and their inflated chests with hundreds of decorative commedation. For what? What did they do to earn those?

Their apologists on this very forum continue to defend their incompetence. We can't take action because he nation is not ready, courts are forgiving of the militants, human rights activists are gonna bad mouth us, these are their lame excuses.

Bunch of lazy and incompetent fools defending others like them. Let me tell you something, this leadership both civil and military is gutless. They don't have the balls do what's necessary.

When ttp went public with their first attack they should have been ravaged. To hell with the human right activists and court proceedings and doing the right thing. They should have been strung up side down from the highest tree with their guts leaking for the rest of them to see.

This is how you put an end to madness. Hidig behind the guise of nobility is a standard of a coward. And we got hem aplenty in our leadership.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

54 people have been arrested so far for investigations...
Hopefully the truth will come out soon.

The radicalised fringe the DAWN editorial talks about is infact the underlying ideology and worldview promoted by the TTP and its supporters. The doctrine is basically a set of Salafi tenets imported from the Salafi/Wahabi clergy in Saudi - a regressive tribal doctrine masquerading as religion that was put on steroids over the last two decades thanks to saudi-petro dollars, the proxy war betwwen Saudi and Iran, and the Afghan war.

Pakistani intelligence and US govt. has admitted on several occasions that at least a third of the funding for the TTP(a blend of punjabi taliban, LeJ and KP militants)comes from the Saudi Salafi network in the Gulf with ideological support.

The TTP land grab in Swat in 2009 was an attempt to setup a Salafi-run fiefdom in the region. Militant activities such as blowing up shrines, girl's schools, targeting and killing Shias, are all avowed objectives of Salafi/Wahabi jihadists around the world. And of course they despise the democratic form of governance and consider it "unislamic" - which is why the TTP recently rubbished Imran Khan's proposed peace march.

Clearly, the TTP is the flagbearer of the Salafi network in Pakistan. It is like a rabid dog that needs to be put to sleep. There is no room for negotiation.

Of course, TTP has supporters in the political domain, especially Jamaat Islami - a party who actually has been known to shelter Al Qaeda militants in the past, as well as providing medical supplies to TTP militants during the Swat offensive under the guise of Al Khidmat trust.

While it is time to dismantle the TTP hub in NWA, we also need to tighten the screws on their sympathizers in JI as well as fringe elements in the military. The attacks on Mehran Base, GHQ and to a lesser degree in Kamra could not have taken place without insider information.

Gen Kayani's recent address is appreciated. That said, actions speak louder than words. GHQ needs to walk the talk. Time to bury its monster child - once and for all.

Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/pakist...ziristan-begin-after-eid-5.html#ixzz23mlEtCNt

 

[Edevelop]

Lingering questions: Is something being hidden about the militants’ approach?

ISLAMABAD:
Despite the relative success of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in repelling a militant raid, some lingering questions remain about the militants’ approach and choice of targets.
The official version of the PAF is different from what sources told The Express Tribune. According to a PAF spokesman, the militants climbed the boundary wall to enter the premises of the base and were intercepted by Sepoy Asif Ramzan, who was guarding a post. Ramzan suffered bullet injuries and later died.
However, sources said that, apparently aware of the heavy security presence on the main route that passes through the GT Road, the militants used another road that links Attock with GT road.
Dressed in military uniform, they travelled in a double-cabin jeep similar to the ones used by security officials and passed through some army installations, including an army check post before entering the premises. When their vehicle was stopped at the second check post in the vicinity of PAF Minhas, the militants exited the car all guns blazing. One source added that the driver of the vehicle managed to escape in the jeep. The footage of the vehicle was recorded by a CCTV camera located on the post, the source claimed. Surprisingly, there is no mention of this vehicle in PAF’s official version so far.

Then there was the apparent knowledge of what they were attacking.
According to insiders, Kamra airbase is one of the most sophisticated installations of PAF and the major overhauling facility for all types of fighter jets used by the air force. “The militants chose the base side where the Saab-2000 aircraft were parked,” they said.

Pakistan has a total of three Sweden manufactured Saab-2000 aircrafts, the most sophisticated surveillance aircraft the country has now. Saab-2000 look like 737 passenger planes but are equipped with state-of-the-art radar systems for surveillance.

It is not clear if it was a Saab-2000 that was damaged during the attack. “I can tell you that one plane was damaged and it suffered a substantial damage. I cannot reveal the name of the craft… please wait for the inquiry report,” said Tariq Mehmood, the PAF spokesman.

All PAF installations are guarded by the Defence Services Guard, including Minhas base, which is an elite wing of the PAF. After similar attacks on security establishments, the PAF deployed its special services wing personnel to guard all its bases. They are specially trained commandos like SSG commandos of the Pakistan Army.

Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, Chief of the Air Staff of PAF has constituted a board of inquiry headed by Air Marshal Syed Athar Hussain Bukhari to probe the various key aspects of the brazen assault.

Lingering questions: Is something being hidden about the militants

 

[karan.1970]

The silence of ISPR and the fact that for 4-5 hours the terrorists were in the facility and were not able to do any damage makes the whole thing look a little too suspicious.. Either a major coverup in in progress or a surprise is going to hit all of us when ISPR comes out with a final report..

NW is a different ball game. PA is officially on record, denying any NW operation. Now to tow the American line and undertake that operation, they need a viable justification. What better than an attack by Taliban on the Military assets that most Pakistanis hold dearer than their lives...

And the narrative continues to build

Kamra attack shows need for North Waziristan offensive | DAWN.COM

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Taliban’s brazen attack on a major air force base near the capital underscores the need for the Pakistani army’s planned offensive against the group in its last major sanctuary along the Afghan border.

But the operation in the remote, mountainous North Waziristan tribal area is fraught with danger, both in terms of battling the Taliban and avoiding combat with other militants who are not viewed by the state as a threat because they have focused their attacks on Nato and Afghan forces inside neighbouring Afghanistan.

The United States has repeatedly pressed Pakistan to attack this latter group of militants in North Waziristan, especially the so-called Haqqani network. But the offensive is likely to disappoint on that front and is shaping up to be much less dramatic than the type Washington has long wanted.

The major perceived threat for Islamabad is definitely the Taliban’s Pakistani branch, which has waged a bloody insurgency in the country for years that has killed over 30,000 people.

 

[Haseebullah]

Sepoy Asif Ramzan sacrificed his life for his motherland with great courage.

 

[Mani2020]

the guy who, i quoted yesterday has revealed today that the 3 aircrafts he was mentioning about are indeed saab-2000 out of which 1 is completely destroyed while two sustain damage ....and he is betting his whole credibility our his claim

while the people who were questioning that there was no fire what so ever then how come an aircraft got destroyed that badly,had there been any such major damage there would have been some fire or smoke there

here is the pic taken by a civilian which shows the smoke and fire

I think there is seriously something wrong

 

[Roybot]

I think there is seriously something wrong

That photo is from PNS Mehran attack.

 

[Icarus]

Only thing ???

This is exactly what the world fears and you make light of it !!!

Without any detonators, the best they can do is introduce the fissile material to cause local contamination. In which case the terrorist themselves will be dead within 3 minutes of coming into contact with fissile material. The concept of the dirty bomb has been rebuked by many nuclear diplomatists. It's impossible.

 

[karan.1970]

Without any detonators, the best they can do is introduce the fissile material to cause local contamination. In which case the terrorist themselves will be dead within 3 minutes of coming into contact with fissile material. The concept of the dirty bomb has been rebuked by many nuclear diplomatists. It's impossible.

Looking at the 9 idiots who stormed Kamra yesterday, do you think dying within 3 minutes is an kind of deterant for them?

 

[Icarus]

Looking at the 9 idiots who stormed Kamra yesterday, do you think dying within 3 minutes is an kind of deterant for them?

It's not but it's going to be a problem taking that material to it's intended target after it has been stolen, when the terrorists carrying it are dead themselves.

 

[Mani2020]

That photo is from PNS Mehran attack.

then why geodost is showing this?

 

[karan.1970]

It's not but it's going to be a problem taking that material to it's intended target after it has been stolen, when the terrorists carrying it are dead themselves.

You are I both know there are ways.. Lead boxes.. Multiple teams.. One thing terrorists are best at is finding unorthodox and unprecedented ways of achieving impossible looking audacious tasks.. Who could have thought of using civilian airlines as missiles before 9/11

 

[Roybot]

then why geodost is showing this?

I have no idea what Geodost is, but a quick google image search will tell you that picture is from May, 2011.

Pakistan: attaque terroriste dans une base militaire à Karachi, quatre morts - A la Une : LaDépêche.fr

 

[IceCold]

Never in the history of Pakistan have our installations been hit like these and our prized assets being destroyed in peace time.

The government has become an absolute joke and so is our judiciary and politicians. The mother fckers cant see what's happening around them. The so called political gains have clouded their judgement and to outsmart the other they have forgot

what their real purpose was. Sadly Judiciary too is playing in the hands of these thugs and the Nation is as usual sleeping. I was amazed that most of people in my office were not even aware of this attack. The same is the case else where. People are busy in eid shopping while top military installations are being hit.

What have we become a banana republic?

Another sad day in our history and once again while we all going to remember 9/11 and 26/11, this one will just pass as another day in our miserable low life.