On 16 August 2012, one soldier was killed and several were injured in a terrorist attack on

PAF Base Minhas Pakistan Air Force Base Minhas is a Pakistan Air Force Airbase located at (Kamra Cantt) Attock District, Punjab, Pakistan. It was named in the honour of Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas, who was awarded the Nishan-e-Haider for valor in the Indo-Pa ...

which houses aircraft manufacturing facilities of the

Pakistan Aeronautical Complex The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) is a major defense contractor and an aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Kamra, Punjab, Pakistan. The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex is one of the largest defense contractors in aerospace and milit ...

. The 9 attackers were later killed by PAF ground units. The TTP claimed responsibility for the attack.

Background

The spillover of war in neighboring Afghanistan into Pakistan's

North West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ) was a province of British India from 1901 to 1947, of the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, and of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 1970 to 2010. It was established on 9 November 1901 from ...

had given birth to terrorist groups like the TTP which aimed to overthrow the democratic government in Pakistan. The

Pakistan Armed Forces The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consists of three uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are backe ...

along with NATO allies had been in war with groups like these for many years. By 2012, the TTP's emir

Baitullah Mehsud Baitullah Mehsud ( – 5 August 2009) was a Pakistani militant. He was one of the founders and a leader of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) in Waziristan. He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007.Abbas, Hassan ...

had been killed in a US drone strike while their ally

Al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

's leader

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...

was killed during

Operation Neptune Spear On 2 May 2011, the United States conducted Operation Neptune Spear, in which SEAL Team Six shot and killed Osama bin Laden at his " Waziristan Haveli" in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bin Laden, who founded al-Qaeda and orchestrated the September ...

Attack

At around 02:00am local time, the attackers fired a barrage of

RPG-7 The RPG-7 is a portable, reusable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank, rocket launcher. The RPG-7 and its predecessor, the RPG-2, were designed by the Soviet Union, and are now manufactured by the Russian company Bazalt. The weapon has t ...

s from outside the base premises due to which one parked aircraft sustained damages due to shrapnel. After scaling the walls, they were engaged by PAF ground forces. During the firefight, some explosives hit the

Hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

s where Saab-2000 Erieyes of the PAF's 3 AEW&C Squadron were parked which resulted in one aircraft being damaged beyond repair and two other sustaining significant shrapnel damages.

QRF A rapid reaction force / rapid response force (RRF), quick reaction force / quick response force (QRF), immediate reaction force (IRF), rapid deployment force (RDF), or quick maneuver force (QMF) is a military or law enforcement unit capable of ...

forces along with the

Special Service Wing The Pakistan Air Force Special Services Wing is a special operations force who specialised in all aspects of air-to-ground communication, including air traffic control, fire support, command, control and communications in covert counterterrori ...

rushed to the scene as reinforcements from Attock police and

Punjab Rangers The Punjab Rangers (formally Pakistan Rangers (Punjab)) () is a federal paramilitary force in Pakistan. It is one of nine Civil Armed Forces and is one of two Ranger forces with the other one being the Sindh Rangers, which operates in Sindh, Si ...

also arrived. The militants who were by then overwhelmed amidst a heavy firefight were gradually cornered and eliminated one by one. The last one who was wearing an

Explosive belt An explosive belt (also called suicide belt, suicide vest or bomb vest) is an improvised explosive device, a belt or a vest packed with explosives and armed with a detonator, worn by suicide bombers. Explosive belts are usually packed with ball ...

blew himself up and the airbase was secured after two hours of intense gunfights. Apart from the 9 terrorists, 3 base security guards and two regular

airmen An airman is a member of an air force or air arm of a nation's armed forces. In certain air forces, it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank. An airman can also be referred to as a soldier in other definitions. As a military rank designat ...

were killed while several others were wounded including the

Base commander The base commander is the officer assigned to command a military base. In the United States armed forces, a base commander is generally at least an O-6 grade officer, which means colonel (Army, Air Force, Marines) or captain (Navy, Coast Guard). ...

; Air Commodore Muhammad Azam who was hit in the shoulder while leading the clearance operation.

Aftermath

After the attacks, Pakistani

Law Enforcement Agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...

launched a countrywide manhunt for those involved. Attock district police later arrested 9 people who were linked to the attacks which also included a suspect who provided financial and logistic assistance in planning the attack. In 2014, Bilal Khan another alleged mastermind of the attack was killed during a joint operation by Karachi Police and

Sindh Rangers The Sindh Rangers (formally Pakistan Rangers Sindh) (Sindhi language, Sindhi:سنڌ رينجرز) is a federal paramilitary force in Pakistan. It is one of nine Civil Armed Forces and is one of two Ranger forces with the other one being the Pun ...

at Machar Colony.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minhas attack, 2012 Attacks on airbases in Pakistan War on terror 2012 mass shootings in Asia Attacks on military installations in 2012 Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan attacks Aviation history of Pakistan Terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2012

Background

Attack

Aftermath

See also

References