Karachi- Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the terror attack on Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.
"We carried out this attack on the Karachi airport and it is a message to the Pakistani government that we are still alive to react over the killings of innocent people in bomb attacks on their villages," TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in a statement to the media. He said that the attack was also carried out to avenge the killing of former Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike.
For nearly six hours the Jinnah international airport, which is close to the old airport terminal, was shut down and all flights were diverted as heavy exchange of gunfire took place and thick plumes of smoke and fire could be seen rising from inside the runway area where the terrorists took cover in the hanger and engineering workshops.