Pakistan International Airlines jet shot at while landing in Peshawar airport

Islamabad: A major catastrophe was averted when pilots of a Pakistan International Airline landed the aircraft after it was fired upon by unidentified gunmen at the Peshawar airport late on Tuesday night.

PIA Flight PK756, carrying 178 passengers from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to Peshawar, was fired upon for two minutes before landing at the Bacha Khan International airport. Police said the shots were fired from a sub-machine gun or an AK-47. A woman passenger and injured two crew members were injured.

Peshawar police registered cases against the unidentified men for the attack on the passenger plane. More than 500 suspects have been arrested so far for the attack, Express Tribune reported.

A police official said the shots could have been fired from a nearby residential area which is close to the airport. Wajid, who sustained bullet injuries in his leg, said the Boeing plane was at an altitude of 250 to 300 feet height when gunshots hit the aircraft at the rear.

“When the plane was about to land, we heard shots and suddenly there was chaos in the flight,” a passenger was quoted as saying by Dunya TV.

Three international flights were diverted from Peshawar following the attack. “Emirates, Ettehad and Saudia Airlines were diverted from Peshawar to Islamabad for security reasons”, said an official.

Several airlines have curtailed night flights to Pakistan, and Cathay Pacific will pullout services from June 28.

This was the second militant strike on a Pakistan airport in recent weeks, after a bloody raid in Karachi that extinguished a largely fruitless peace process with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).