A file photo shows a PIA aircraft at an airport. PHOTO: AFP/ FILE
Two rockets were fired at the Kandahar airport in Afghanistan on Tuesday apparently targeting a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft, reported Express News.
Both the rockets failed to hit the runway and fell outside the airport thus resulting in no damage.
Sources said that the aircraft, PK 199, was preparing to take off for Quetta when the rockets were launched. The passengers and crew members on board remained inside the plane.
The attacks delayed the flight by two hours but the passengers were kept unaware to avoid panic.
The aircraft, carrying 20 passengers, soon took off and reached its destination Quetta.
A recent report by an Islamabad-based think tank showed that the year 2012 witnessed an unprecedented increase in cross-border rocket and mortar attacks by the Afghan Nation Army (ANA) into Pakistan.
COMMENTS (42)
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Afganistan & Pakistan are brother
do not interfare plzz
@ afgan view i think u r not still metchure better 4 u see cartoons and play game put on your pent
a non muslim cant be your friend Pakistan & pakistani love afganistan
@sajjad ali khan: good to see our "brother" is so much worried about our hayatabad. why dont u give the theory a try and just leave the whole Pakistan. also please take ur arab, chechan, uzbek etc baggage with u.
This is reverse strategic depth!
@Khan
"Your country is unfortunately war torn and has no infrastructure yet your people as you boasted about, are able to afford places that we cannot despite having better education & infrastructure .. then I wonder how do they afford it?"
The reason why Afghans can afford to live in Hayatabad is because their relatives send remittances from Western nations. As far as the quality of infrastructure and the level of education in Pakistan is concerned, you need to thank the British for building all your railroads, industry and educational institutions that actually date back to pre-partition.
As a matter of fact, Pakistan has progressively regressed despite inheriting a country on a platter without a single shot being fired in the fight for independence. Afghanistan has been fighting successive waves of invaders for the better part of its 265 year history.
If Pakistan had better infrastructure and education it would not have relied on IMF, WB and the US since its inception. Let's keep things in context and remember that Afghanistan was never colonized by the British and therefore it did not benefit from their technology and know how like the rest of the sub continent.
Afghans have finally risen from the ashes of war and the devastating effects of regional geopolitical games and they are busy rectifying the mistakes of the past. Unfortunately their biggest enemies are its two Muslim neighbors and Afghans are finally making strategic pacts to counter their enemies evil designs.
@WTH!: My dear Pakistani friends, for how long you will be fighting the whole world, you have problems with India, Bangladesh, Iran, US, Russia, I mean the whole world, please think why this happening to you, why everybody hates you, for sure there is something wrong. My dear friends check while travel the world and see who are hated the most, not Afghans for sure, We are thankful to the people of Pakistan for their hospitality but can somebody tell your government to stop the dirty games and let us live in peace and if we are not in peace you will also be affected. Your population is now touching 200 million people and your resources so be clever and let Afghanistan be safe place where you can benefit from there as well as the huge resources from Central Asia but if there is war then you will get nothing. Do you know whom the people like the most in Afghanistan, Japan as a global power for their positive role and Turkmenistan as a good neighbor. Be like Turkmenistan. FYI, we are having flights from all the world and regional countries(Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, India, UAE, Suadi Arabia, Qatar and may more) and also Afghan government and private airlines are traveling all around the world, it is only Pakistan who is creating problem for Afghan airlines not to travel to Pakistani cities just to keep their monopoly, the PIA which is already deep financial crises now want to make some money while charging huge prices on tickets to Afghanistan, the 40 minute flight from Kandahar to Quetta cost almost same as flight from Kabul to Moscow. With all these problems and your insulting comments, people in Afghanistan are cheering for Pakistani cricket team and are grieved with suffering of brothers in Pakistan. I pray to God, that peace return to both Pakistan and Afghanistan and the people of these beautiful countries live in environment of peace and tranquility. Long live both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
@Sajjad Ali Khan
You are my hero. I don't have to respond to all the haters here, you have done a commendable job. Bravo!
Funny comments from people with funny names like Khan Bhai and Munna. You can't be a Khan and be a Bhai and Munna is probably still playing with Guddi. So much hate for Afghans. Those rockets were fired at the Kandahar base where thousands of US soldiers are based not at the PIA plane.
I am surprised to see so many Pakistanis lack basic information about its next door neighbor and the sheer display of ignorance combined with arrogance is nauseating.
@Kuva
If you really think your first prime minister was assassinated by an Afghan then you must also believe that you are an Arab and not an Indian.
This is one bad news,if our Planes will see such threats ,Pakistan will face a very big problem. PIA is already suffering lot of things these days. Hope for the best.
@sajjad ali khan:
Pakistan was a very peaceful place before your government invited USSR and your right wing leaders like Rabbani & Hekmatyar et al asked for US & Pakistan's meddling. After 1989 withdrawal these same leaders started civil war for their lust of power and a civil war followed for many years which our other neighbors and every one else forgets very conveniently. Lets agree on this point that the situation in our sick neighbor is better now and Pakistan is crumbling so can we please ask over 2.6 million registered plus another 2 million unregistered refugees to go back now?
And that is exactly the problem that we're asking to evict these "refugees" who with their drug and illegal money has owned our cities and towns .. adding to the imbalance of supply & demand thus putting a huge burden on our population. Your country is unfortunately war torn and has no infrastructure yet your people as you boasted about, are able to afford places that we cannot despite having better education & infrastructure .. then I wonder how do they afford it?
@sajjad ali khan: Yes, helping liberate Afghanistan from Soviet occupation, and hosting and providing for millions of Afghan refugees was really toxic - for Pakistan! Seems like you have had a good crop of poppy this year in Afghanistan.
@Lone:
My bad bro! Just crossed checked and you are absolutely right. Thanks.
Antiislamic elements in Afganistan are gaining power every day. They have to be stopped!
@American: In your comment, replace Pakistanis with Americans and that is how the world around you feels about America.
@Karzai: I've been hearing these tall tales for past three decades but nothing changes in Afghanistan. Sorry but you have a long way to go.
@SM: Wrong! it was Afghanistan who first started meddling in our country and as you can see in the link below, Afghanistan assassinated Pakistan's first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951. What interference in the name of jihad was Pakistan carrying out in Afghanistan in 1951?
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/pakistan/pakintrigue.htm#liaquat
Why don't you read up on some REAL history instead of Paki-liberal propaganda?
We are glad to read that the terrorists simply failed in trying to orchestrate another act of terror. More importantly, nobody was injured and all the passengers were safe and sound. These terrorists continue to work against our efforts to restore peace in the region. We must not let them deter us from achieving our shared objectives. We’ve come too far and made too sacrifices to now let the tide shift. We must work together to negate the threat posed by these terrorists. We are confident of achieving our shared objectives through mutual cooperation.
Ali Khan DET, United States Central Command www.Centcom.mil/Ur
@ candid1
Afghans dont love to fly with pia into afghanista. Pakistani labourers and pakistani accountants, bankers, doctors, admin staff, isi staff, terrorist supportors, terrorism planners, target choosers, some kids and buisness and a few afghans use PIA. So it is not a question of love but more of a convenience.
@ roadkashahzada Towns like hayatabad will be ghosy towns if afghand wrre to leave. Poor pakhtund cant afforf to live there and punjabis get scared of the prospects of living in a foreign country namely kp.
@ WTH
I think it is the other way around. most of the issues in Afghanistan stems from the fact Pakistan since decades is meddling in our internal affaires. No one in pakistan can claim afghanistan to be meddling in pakistans internal affairs. The issues pakistan faces today are not created by afghans but they should be regarded as side effects of pakistan toxic medicines it has been giving its sick neighbour. We are now witnessing resurgence of this sick neighbour(afg) and rathet interstingly the crumbling of the immoral nuclear power. There is some justice in this.
@Afghan view: sorry for my ignorance about other carriers flying to afghanistan. earlier i only saw some UN flights flying from Dubai. i thought all afghan travel from peshawar, rest in their second home in hayatabad or jallozai (for non warlords) and then cross the border illegally to their country to talk bad about a country who is hosting 4 million ungrateful people for 3 decades
So much for NATO/Afghan theory that Pakistan shelters Afghan terrorist! If that were the case, they would not be attacking a Pakistani target. It is more like Afghans aiding terrorism against Pakistan.
@Afghan view: Of course the Afghan authorities will deny the attack, have they ever sais anything truthful? In any case Afghans have been living in denial for the last 20 years, and still believe that their terrorism is foreign inspired. And if PIA is so shoddy, why do the 5 million Afghans living off Pakistani genorisity in Pakistan love to fly to it to Afghanistan? I guess these are the terrorists you must be talking about.
Pakistan should now close its airspace for flights to Afghanistan. Let them ride their donkeys to their desitnations.
@Afghan view: if you are so proud of the all these airlines, then who's responsibility to provide the security to these foriegn airlines at Knadhar and Kabul's air boundries?? Does Pakistan have to it too???
If you fight with taliban,that is bound to happen.They will retaliate you with more severity....
Afghan View: This news has been picked by many newspapers now and fyi your Afghan government/authorities are notorious liars and the least reliable source which you propably already knows.
And to my pakistani fellows we shouldn´t jump to premature conclusions and blame the afghans. We should remember that other countries agencies are active in Afghanistan and it can be any of them too!
On a end note I wish that relation between Pakistan and Afghanistan improves as we cannot wish each other away!
@WTH!: In your comment, replace Afghans with Pakistanis...and that is how the world around you feels about Pakistan.
@sam: the return 40 miniutes flight is usd 450 per person which is higher than the domestic flights
As the defence analysts of pindi wud say this is a conspiracy
@WTH!: Ever heard of "Strategic depth"? Google it and you will know why Afgans are ungrateful to Pakistanis.
@ Adnan Siddiqui
actually its ATR-42
@ all of you guys above
FYI there is an absolute denial of any sort of such attacks by the authorities on the ground. Before jumping to any conclusion I think ET should have first followed some basic journalistic rules and should have carried out some counter checks. They should have confirmed the incident with the airport authorities in Kandahar and maybe also with some passengers.
@roadkashehzada i agree with you. why has PIA flights to Afghanistan? after all we afghans are not so keen to have shoddy old PIA planes roaming around in our airspace and transporting terrorists into our country. FYI not only PIA flies to Afghanistan but many more carriers do for example Emirates, Gulf air, Turkish airlines, indian air, iranian airlines and 5 afghan carriers. there are others as well which you can google. Afghans have not asked PIA to fly to Afghanistan, but PIA have for their own interest and other reasons decided to earn some money in Afghanistan. I think some pakistani brothers(not all) should now realise the changing facts on the ground and start to show some respect to their 'most important' neighbour.
Horrific Consequences of Strategic Depth
only 20 people no wonder PIA is not making any profits. with flight like this the loses might reah trillions
@WTH!: wrong! most of the problems in Pakistan are because we chose to meddle in Aghanistan's internal affairs in the name of 'jihad'
Thank god this was avoided. Afghan civil aviation authority has some explaining to do with the security protocols
God has saved the precious human lives of Pakistanis as well as the aircraft.
The government of Pakistan should take up the matter with the Afghan Government as what is going on across the border?
So afghanistan is being prepared to attack pakistan,, I hope people here understand the situation..
Why on earth do we have soft corners for Afghanis, these ungrateful people dont even realize that millions of them live in Pakistan for their bread and butter, we don't discriminate against them. Let them have their share of bread and butter. But seriously Afghanis are one of the most difficult and ungrateful people on earth. Most of the issues in Pakistan today is because we have Afghanistan as our neighbour.
ET - Please update that image! A Boeing 777 does not fly into Kandhar neither does this aircraft fly any scheduled service out of Quetta except during the hajj season. A more apt image would that be of an ATR-72 which flies on Quetta-Kandhar route.
11 years now for US and NATO troops in Afghanistan and they are still unable to secure a major airport. Afghanistan proving to be graveyard of another superpower or what?
why do we give our head to everyone in the world? why do we have flights to afghanistan? any other international airline that flies to afghanistan? who will be responsible in case of an accident?
Why would you travel to Kandahar in the first place?
@ET what has the cross border attack do with the attack on the civilian plane , carrying innocent civilians. What a misleading addition to the report.