Pakistan: Attack on PIA flight

Without fail the attacks on passenger aircraft and assaults on civilian aviation facilities draw in enormous media coverage, and who would know it better than the terrorists fighting the state of Pakistan. This month of June there was a massive terrorist attack on Karachi airport resulting in the deaths of scores of people and extensive infrastructural and cargo losses; the Tehrik-i-Taliban promptly claimed responsibility later endorsed by the Uzbek militants. Then we had the Qadri landing saga with unscheduled diversion and forced occupancy of a foreign airliner; it has earned the country savoury comment - in foreign travel advisories. And now it is the ground fire on a PIA airliner, killing one and injuring two as it approached Peshawar airport for landing. Only two minutes to landing with engine power considerably reduced the plane was at 250-300 feet above ground when struck by ground fire. As reported, five or six bullets hit the aircraft - something quite rare in the history of firing on planes flying in or out of Peshawar airport - but the pilot kept the nerve and made a safe landing. It was indeed a miraculous escape for the PIA aircraft flying in from Saudi capital of Riyadh with some 180 passengers on board. What followed the incident is usual: the flight from Kaula Lumpur was diverted to Lahore and for some time flight operations were suspended. Not that terrorists hope to win territory or own an airline; they want to tell the world that they are very much there in the field: unfazed. This they have done, their exploit being of critical importance to them now when a full-fledged military operation is in process against them.

Of course, this is not the first time that Peshawar airport has come under terrorist attack. In the past too the airport was targeted with rockets from adjacent tribal area. In December 2012, terrorists carried out a large attack killing a police officer and scores of others - then, the target were both the civilian airport and the adjoining PAF airbase. So, now when the terrorist outfits and their hideouts throughout the tribal region including next door Khyber Agency are under massive military surveillance and attack, such an incident as a gunfire attack on the PIA plane was very much expected. The question is why the civil aviation authorities didn't think of suspending civilian flight operations for the duration of military operation. Thank God, the gunfire did not hit the pilot - he escaped the shot by inches as the man next to him was hit by a bullet - with engine power cut-off for descent, the landing was solely dependent on him. Given the fact that Peshawar or Bacha Khan airport is almost defenceless given its location amidst thickly, populated neighbourhoods, which are impossible to secure against the presence of terrorists or its zero-distance location from their hideouts in the adjoining tribal area. To keep the airport functional in such a situation is certainly very risky. Islamabad airport being not more than two hours' drive from Peshawar should be used as an alternate as long as the military operation is in progress. At the same time the government should think and if it already has, then it should expedite the matter, of shifting the Peshawar airport out of the congested area to a new location some distance from the city. In fact the same is in order for the Islamabad airport, which the police found very expensive to defend against the Qadri's welcoming supporters on Monday. Isn't it darn scandalous that completion of work on the new airport meant to cater to air traffic for the capital, is still years away even when billions have been spent. One wonders if mega projects like metro bus plans can be completed in less than a year why the work on the new airport for Islamabad is not. It's perhaps a question of priorities. Peshawar too needs a new airport. But for the time being the priority should be the lives of air travellers to and from the provincial capital and for this the only option seems to be total suspension of civilian flights to and from the Peshawar city.