Terror plot on Pakistan's Masroor airbase thwarted, 9 militants arrested

Karachi: Pakistani intelligence agencies have foiled a major terror plot aimed at the strategically vital Pakistan Air Force Masroor Base here, which was intended to cause “maximum damage,” a media report said on Friday.

According to a report in the Jang newspaper, intelligence agencies carried out raids this week and arrested nine suspected militants who were tasked with launching a terror attack on the Masroor airbase to inflict casualties and cause maximum damage to aircraft and infrastructure.

The nine militants were arrested from their safe houses in Karachi, and of them, five were identified as Afghans.

Citing intelligence sources, the report said that the nine militants entered Pakistan from Afghanistan a month ago and have been based in a low-income neighbourhood near the airbase for the last month, surveilling the area to execute their plans.

A source said the militants were tasked with attacking the base using “heavy ammunition and explosives” to stall any operation and engage security forces for a “long time, while also causing maximum damage to the base and aircraft.”

“They had no intention of coming out alive from the base and we recovered a lot of material, ammunition and explosives maps outlining their plans,” the source was quoted as saying.

The terror attack was planned by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and was commandeered by a high-level militant of the outlawed group who had fled to Afghanistan a few months ago after killing a Chinese national in Karachi, the report said.

In the past, TTP militants have carried out major attacks on the Pakistan Naval airbase in Karachi in 2011, the Karachi dockyard in 2014 and also the Karachi airport the same year.