Woman shot dead as militants fire on Pakistan scheduled flight

Latest assault blamed on Taliban as clashes escalate with army.

Peshawar:  Gunmen opened fire on a state-run national airline plane in restive northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday night, killing one female passenger and wounding two crew members.

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia came under fire as it was landing at Peshawar.

“At least 12 rounds were fired at the plane during landing,” said police officer Najeeb ur Rehman. “It is a terrorist attack, not an accidental aerial firing incident.”

Maqnoon Begum was pronounced dead on arrival while the flight stewards Wajid Khan and Ejaz Khan were taken to hospital, said PIA spokesman Mashood Tajwar.

Police immediately launched a search operation for the gunmen. But Rehman admitted that militants could escape into nearby lawless tribal areas in as little as 10 minutes.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicions are likely to fall on the Taliban after 10 of the group’s heavily armed gunmen stormed Karachi airport on June 8, killing at least 32 people and signaling the end to a fragile peace accord.

The deadly assault prompted the government to launch a major military offensive in Northern Waziristan on the lawless border with Afghanistan south of Peshawar as clashes with the Taliban have escalated in recent weeks.

The Pakistan army announced in a statement on Tuesday that it had killed 47 Taliban militants in air and ground strikes in North Waziristan and the Khyber tribal area west of Peshawar.

So far more than 450,000 civilians have fled the offensive, the statement added, with aid agencies warning of an unfolding humanitarian crisis.

Source: ucanews.com