Pakistani authorities yesterday recovered the burned remains of seven Karachi airport workers who hid in a cold-storage facility during a Taliban attack on Sunday night, as one tearful relative recounted his nephew’s final telephone call.
Shahid Khan said his 32-year-old nephew Inayat’s last words were to his wife, whom he called at 11:25pm on Sunday as the raid by militants armed with guns, grenades and rocket launchers began.
“[The nephew] said: ‘The attack is on our office, they are showering the office with rockets and bullets.’ That was the last contact and then the line got cut — but we did not know it would be forever,” said the sobbing Khan, an elderly Pashtun.
Photo: Reuters
Inayat Khan was among seven people who locked themselves in the cold-storage room, which was adjacent to one of the entry points used by the 10 Taliban fighters, and caught fire during the attack.
The workers’ grisly deaths brought the toll from Monday’s all-night siege to 37, including the attackers.
Provincial health minister Sagheer Ahmed told reporters earlier yesterday that one airport security guard was still missing.
Eleven airport security guards have been confirmed dead in the raid, along with a paramilitary ranger, a policeman, 14 civilian workers and 10 militants.
Shahid Khan said his nephew, who had an administrative job in the cargo terminal, was not well off and his family would now struggle to provide for his two daughters.
“We are in mourning but these are hard realities that his family will eventually have to face,” he said.
Meanwhile, a second attack on a security post outside the airport was carried out by at least two gunmen yesterday, but the men quickly fled and there were no casualties.
The latest assault on the airport raised further questions about the authorities’ ability to secure key facilities in the face of a resurgent enemy, and came as air force jets pounded suspected militant hideouts in the northwest, killing 25 people.
The attack on the security post targeted an entry point to an Airport Security Force (ASF) camp 500m from the airport’s main premises, and about a kilometer from the passenger terminal.
Police, paramilitary rangers and army all raced to the site, but officials said they had not traded fire with the militants.
“Two people came towards the ASF checkpost and started firing,” Colonel Tahir Ali, a spokesman for the force told reporters. “Nobody has been killed or injured.”
Flights resumed after temporarily being suspended for the second time in as many days, Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Abid Qaimkhani said.
A senior Rangers official at the scene who wished to remain anonymous said the gunmen may have fled to a nearby shanty settlement.
“We are chasing them, we will get them, its not easy to hide here, there are no buildings, no population except for two small shanty towns nearby,” he said.
The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in response to air strikes in the tribal areas.
The air strikes were in apparent retaliation for the Sunday-to-Monday siege of the airport.
The Pakistani military said that nine “terrorist hideouts” were destroyed in the raids.
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