Terrorists planned to take hostages: Pakistani minister

Islamabad, June 10: The objective of Sunday's terrorist attack on Karachi airport was to target aircraft and take hostages, Pakistani Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan told the parliament Tuesday.

Making a statement in the National Assembly, he said the attackers appeared to be foreigners, Xinhua reported.

He said the CCTV grabs showed that the 10 heavily armed terrorists were tall and fair.

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the late Sunday attack that had killed 28 people. The 10 attackers were also killed in the five-hour clash.

"Their features are different from us. The bodies of terrorists are with the security forces and their biometrics and post-mortems are being carried out," Khan said.

The attackers appeared to be foreigners, said the Pakistani minister

Rejecting the opposition's criticism of the law and order situation, he said that six intelligence alerts have been issued to the Sindh provincial government since last November.

The minister said that the terrorists were equipped with sophisticated weapons including Kalashnikovs, grenades and rocket launchers, adding that the attackers failed to achieve their objective to target the nation's assets.

The National Assembly later unanimously passed a resolution strongly condemning the airport attack.

The resolution paid rich tribute to the Pakistani Army, police, paramilitary Rangers and Airport Security Force for successfully countering the attack and eliminating the terrorists.

IANS