Zarb-e-Azb fallout: Security heightened at Kamra airbase, PAC

The measures have been taken in wake of intelligence reports.

ISLAMABAD: Security measures at the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Minhas Base, Kamra in Attock District have been heightened following intelligence reports warning of terrorist attacks on sensitive installations.

The PAF base is located in a sensitive area and is adjacent to Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) that houses various other defence installations such as an aircraft manufacturing factory.

Security around the airbase has been put on alert since intelligence reports have warned of the possibility of terrorist attack on sensitive installations in the wake of the ongoing military operation in North Waziristan Agency.

On August 16, 2012, a group of nine heavily-armed terrorists launched an attack on Kamra airbase. The attack was the fourth in the Kamra Cantonment area.

On October 23, 2009, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of the complex.

A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a school bus near Fauji gate of PAC Kamra in December 2007.

As part of the security measures, the area from Attock Bridge to Kamra Chowk is under strict surveillance, sources in the security agencies informed this reporter, requesting anonymity.

The 10km portion of Attock-Kamra road that passes inside the cantonment has already been declared restricted and entry of private vehicles is only against official passes and proper identification, they observed. Joint checkposts of police and security forces have been established at all entry and exists points of the cantonment.

Local police with the assistance of other law enforcement agencies are also keeping the villages around the complex under surveillance, the sources said.

PAF Media Affairs official Group Capt Mashkoor Hussain said security had been intensified at the base and complex due to prevailing threats.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2014.