Gunmen Shoot at Landing Plane in Peshawar Airport; 1 Killed, 2 Injured

One female passenger was killed and two crew members were injured when gunmen open fired at a landing plane in Peshawar airport on the night of Tuesday.

The gunshots were fired from the adjacent Tehkal area. Pakistani security forces have now launched a hunt for the gunmen in suspected localities.

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK756 was carrying 178 passengers from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, PIA spokesman Mashood Tajwar told PTI.

The Bacha Khan airport in Peshawar was cordoned off immediately after the incident and injured flight attendants Wajid and Ijaz taken for treatment. However the female passenger is understood to have succumbed to injuries on the way.

Five bullets had hit the plane. A number of passengers were injured when the jet suffered a heavy landing. PIA officials said that when they entered the plane, the fatally injured lady was lying on her seat.

As the passengers heard the gunshots, they panicked and wanted to get out from the plane at the earliest. Injured flight attendant Wajid said that the plane was at an altitude of 250 to 300 feet when the gunshot hit the plane.

Captain Tariq Chaudhry safely landed the aircraft and avoided a catastrophe, Wajid added. He says that the gunshots came from the Tehkak area, adjacent to the airport. Wajid's colleague Ijaz, who was wounded with three bullet shots, has been shifted to CMH Peshawar and is getting treatment.

The airport authorities diverted planes which were to be landed at Peshawar airport soon after the incident, police said. As a result, the Peshawar-bound flight from Kuala Lumpur was diverted to Lahore airport.

On 8 June, 39 people were killed at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi when 10 militants of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) attacked the airport. Again on 10 June, gunmen came on motorbikes and opened fire at a security training camp at the same airport and fled away.