http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27757264 Gunmen attack Karachi's Jinnah International Airport Heavily armed gunmen have attacked Karachi international airport in Pakistan, killing at least 10 people. Police say four of the gunmen who attacked Jinnah International Airport's old terminal have also been killed. Security personnel have sealed off the airport and army commandos have been called in, with gunfire continuing. All operations at the terminal have been suspended and all flights to the airport are being diverted. Staff are being evacuated. At least 14 people have been wounded. Billowing smoke The dead terminal staff were said to be mostly security guards from the Airport Security Force (ASF) but also airline workers. Dawn News said the gunmen had infiltrated from the Fokker Gate area. The attackers are believed to have entered the area using fake ID cards. Other reports suggest they cut through a barbed wire fence. There is no indication yet who is carrying out the attack. Smoke is billowing from the attacked terminal. 'Plane on fire' An ASF spokesman told Agence France-Presse that the gunmen had reached the runway and that a "gun battle is continuing between terrorists and [armed] forces". An AFP reporter saw used gun magazines littering the engineering section where the first exchange took place and said that the previously heavy gunfire was now more sporadic. However, the reporter later heard two huge blasts at the airport. Dawn reported that some attackers had managed to get inside a plane. Hammad, a diplomat staying near the airport, told the BBC he had gone on to his rooftop and could see a plane on fire in the airport. Sarmad Hussain, an official with Pakistan International Airlines, told AP: "I was working at my office when I heard big blasts - several blasts - and then there were heavy gunshots." He said he and a colleague escaped by jumping from a window. His colleague broke a leg. The terminal is not normally used for commercial flights but for cargo and special VIP operations. Sindh's Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah is said to have arrived at the scene. Pakistan has been fighting an Islamist insurgency for more than a decade, with the Pakistani Taliban the main militant group. Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently told the BBC he was still hopeful his peace initiative with the Taliban could succeed. But little headway has been made since February and there have been frequent violent clashes. Karachi has been a target for many insurgent attacks. Gunmen attacked the Mehran naval base there in 2011, killing 10 personnel and destroying two aircraft in a 17-hour siege.
What's this I hear that Indian ammunition was found on the terrorists? Slandballa is on my ignore list and of course he would be the first to reply in this thread. I don't give a damn what he said but be tried to convince everyone here to save money on plane tickets and fly through Pakistan as much as possible. What an idiot! I will never fly to ****in' pakistan RIP to all the victims nonetheless. The death toll is now 21.
I don't know what your beef with Slandballa is, but apparently you took more offense at something he said over the internet than anyone should take over internet crap. You are still holding on to it as well.
Link? There was actually an amazing F fare out of KHI to South America on a very good airline, but I think it is no longer available. I think that at this point, I would probably rather pay a bit more and not fly to Pakistan. Disclaimer: I am going to fly from CAI soon, however, there was a very tempting fare from there...
I believe he is referring to the $497 deal I got a few years ago from IAH to LHE. Found via FT, and I used this as a springboard to travel around Pakistan, India, and Nepal during a 3-month period.
I would never suggest that routinely flying to Pakistan is cheaper than flying directly to India if that's your final destination. All I said was it worked for me once, which was pretty cool.
If I wanted to piss off a military state and have them join up with the CIA and NSA to kill me and everyone I know, I would attack the international airport. good jerb
OK I see. All I remember was that someone wanted to fly to India and he came back and said he can save a lot of money (500 rt ticket iirc) if he flew to Pakistan and then traveled to India via other cheaper means. Who the hell would even consider such a deal? I'd gladly pay three times as much and fly directly to India as what most people usually do. My argument was I have never met an Indian or anyone for that matter who has flown through Pakistan to get to India to save some money. I understand he was trying to help, but for as long as I can remember, every other post involved some "indo-paki" phrase, which got annoying to me after a while. Secondly this could've happened in any airport in the world. If it happened at FRA instead, more news outlets would be talking about it, we'd be 20 pages in, everyone would be shocked....but no, this happened in a higher probability place and it just gets a minute ticker as if Pakistanis getting killed doesn't matter at all. 5-10 heavily armed men is no joke. I don't want to start another argument regarding this, so instead I'm going to make a personal statement similar to what I said before and claim I AM NOT INTERESTED IN SAVING MONEY ON PLANE TICKETS TO INDIA BY FLYING THROUGH PAKISTAN, EVER! It's not worth the risk and this attack proves it.
yea no one cares.. typical example of news coverage dictating whether or not you care about something thats actually crazy and could affect the world on a larger scale.. but you know, justin beiber and stuff.
No kidding. I saw this news last night as it was happeneing and frantically tried to find CNN or MSNBC or even Fox News for coverage and there wasn't anything. You would think an active attack on a large international airport would be pressing news.
None of those three networks cares unless it can be turned into a left versus right "discussion." That is part of the reason I refuse to watch any of them (except CNN for hurricane coverage).
Yeah, but this issue easily could be since it was the Taliban who carried it out. That easily ties in with the prisoner swap disaster in Afghanistan, maybe say something to the effect that the Taliban was emboldened by their recent success pulling down the pants of the US or whatever. This would be really easy to politicize.
An active terrorist attack in Karachi (the 3rd largest city in the world) on an INTERNATIONAL airport seems pretty impactful to me. There is no telling what could have happened if they had captured airplanes. They would have had hostages from all over the world and planes to fly wherever they desired. If this wasn't an airport I would probably agree. Also from a business standpoint for the news companies I am more likely to watch something like this as it is happening than Nancy Grace and her angry jowls flapping on the TV.
I was just going through the healthcare professional thread for the first time....literally just now "Now be honest. How many of you are Indo-Pak?" That question was asked by you. I know that's the correct term, but why not combine Pakistan with Iran or Afghanistan? Those are more fitting IMO. Change my Frankfurt Intl airport example to BOM and the same logic applies. Anyways back on topic, Pakistani Taliban has taken responsibility for the attack in retaliation for the death of Mehsud killed in a us drone strike.
