Taimur Khan
,
Nadeem Hanif
, and
Raza Khan
KARACHI // Terrified passengers on an Emirates jet about to take off for Dubai were led to safety amid a deadly siege and gun battle at Karachi airport in Pakistan.
A gang of 10 Pakistani Taliban militants disguised as police officers and airline staff, some wearing suicide vests, stormed Jinnah International Airport and opened fire with machine guns and rocket and grenade launchers.
As a battle with security forces raged for five hours until dawn on Monday, the passengers and crew of Emirates flight EK603, which was already on the tarmac, were escorted from the plane by Pakistani soldiers and taken to a secure area of the terminal building. They were unhurt.
There were unconfirmed reports that some of the attackers had tried to hijack a plane, but had been fought off. Maj Gen Asim Bajwa, an army spokesman, denied that the gunmen had attempted a hijacking.
When the battle ended yesterday morning all 10 Taliban fighters were dead, along with 18 security and airport personnel.
The Taliban said they
carried out the attack
in retaliation for the death of Hakimullah Mehsud, the militant leader who died in a US drone strike last November.
The terminal is normally used by Haj pilgrims and VIPs, and for cargo. The airport reopened late yesterday afternoon and was fully functioning, said Shujaat Azeem, the Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif's adviser for civil aviation.
The attack had begun when the militants made it through security checkpoints at the terminal, about 1.5 kilometres from the main airport. Once inside, the attackers stormed on to a nearby runway, lobbing grenades and salvos of gunfire at security officers.
"They came from the fuelling area and started indiscriminate firing," said an airport employee who fled and hid in a nearby building in the chaos of the initial attack.
"They were dressed like us," he said, and "there was heavy firing from both sides".
The security officers were initially confused by the militants' official uniforms, but their long, unkempt beards eventually made it possible for some of them to be distinguished, the worker said.
Local news channels showed footage of a huge fire close to three parked passenger jets that came from a fuel depot set alight during the firefight.
As dawn broke yesterday, smoke could still be seen billowing in the air. Karachi police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo said no aircraft had been damaged in the attack.
However, a cargo building was gutted by the fire and the explosions, said Rizwan Akhtar, the chief of Pakistan's elite paramilitary Rangers.
He said some of the attackers appeared to be Uzbeks but officials were still
investigating to determine their identity and nationality
.
Everyone in the main terminal of the airport was safe, Gen Bajwa said.
Emirates confirmed that its passengers and crew were unharmed.
"Under the guidance of the Pakistan military the passengers and crew disembarked the aircraft and were taken to a secure area of the terminal," a spokesman said.
"When the airport reopens all passengers will be rebooked on to alternate Emirates flights to continue their journey."
According to the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority website, two other international flights were scheduled to depart Jinnah International between 10.30pm and 1am, bound for Sharjah and Bangkok.
All Karachi-bound flights were diverted and flight operations remained closed yesterday.
Flights between the UAE and Karachi, including from Dubai and Abu Dhabi, were among those delayed.
An Etihad Airways spokesman said they were continuing to monitor the security situation in Karachi.
tkhan@thenational.ae
nhanif@thenational.ae
* Raza Khan reported from Karachi, Taimur Khan from New York and Nadeem Hanif from Dubai
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Trippier bio
Date of birth September 19, 1990
Place of birth Bury, United Kingdom
Age 26
Height 1.74 metres
Nationality England
Position Right-back
Foot Right
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
MATCH INFO
Real Madrid 2
Vinicius Junior (71') Mariano (90 2')
Barcelona 0
Ahmed Raza
UAE cricket captain
Age: 31
Born: Sharjah
Role: Left-arm spinner
One-day internationals: 31 matches, 35 wickets, average 31.4, economy rate 3.95
T20 internationals: 41 matches, 29 wickets, average 30.3, economy rate 6.28
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
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