PAKISTAN: Pakistan's Army Chief General Raheel Sharif heads a meeting to review national security following a Taliban raid on the country's busiest airport

Record ID: 354980

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Pakistan's Army Chief General Raheel Sharif heads a meeting to review national security following a Taliban raid on the country's busiest airport
  • Date: 11th June 2014
  • Summary: LAHORE, PAKISTAN (JUNE 10- JUNE 11, 2014) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) (MUTE) (NIGHT SHOT) POLICE OFFICERS WALKING THROUGH STREET NEAR AIRPORT PLANE TAXIING AT AIRPORT IN DISTANCE OFFICERS GATHERED EXTERIOR OF HOUSE UNDER CONSTRUCTION OFFICERS CHECKING CARTONS IN HOUSE OFFICERS CLIMBING STAIRS OFFICERS WAKING LABOURERS SLEEPING ON ROOF OF HOUSE LABOURERS STANDING UP FROM BE
  • Embargoed: 26th June 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5NJT34D1BMUBOZUSJZCZLMTZ2
  • Story Text: Pakistan's Army Chief, General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday (June 11), presided over a meeting of military commanders at the army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad.
    The meeting, which was called to review the overall national security situation of the country, comes at a time when questions are being raised about the government's ability to face up to a resurgent enemy in the wake of recent Taliban attacks.
    In a commando-style attack carried out with military precision, militants wearing Pakistani uniforms burst into the country's busiest airport on Sunday (June 8) under cover of darkness in one of the most audacious attacks in Pakistan in years.
    The all-night battle at Karachi airport's old terminal building left 34 dead, including the ten attackers.
    On Tuesday (June 10), presiding over a meeting of the National Security Committee to discuss how to handle the crisis, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif directed agencies to heighten security at key state installations.
    Security has been tightened across Pakistan, and police squads have been asked to carry out search operations in sensitive areas across major cities.
    In the central city of Lahore, squads of Quick Response Force (QRF) members patrolled streets around Lahore's International Airport late throughout the night.
    They searched abandoned and under-construction buildings, frisked labourers sleeping on footpaths, searched cars and checked identification papers of people out late at night.
    The Pakistani Taliban, a loose alliance of insurgent groups united by anti-state Jihadist ideology, said they had carried out the Karachi attack in response to strikes on their positions on the Afghan border.
    They have vowed to carry out more similar attacks throughout the country.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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