Islamabad: The recent terror attack on the Karachi airport has taken another turn when the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) has accepted responsibility and his Amir has released photos of attackers. The photos of these young men look more like some smiling teenagers on a fun filled hunting mission instead of terrorists part of the largest attack ever recorded on a civil international airport.
IMU released photos of attackers and released the following statement published first on the Uzbek Jihadi website Furqon from Usman Ghazii, The Ameer of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan:
"On midnight of Monday ten brave martyrdom seeking mujaahids of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan wearing their explosive-filled vests attacked very special section of Karachi International Airport of Pakistan which is not visible to the common folk visiting the Airport.
The operation continued nearly six hours and our mujaahids destroyed many of the fighter jets, American drones and other military planes which were in that special section not visible to the passengers along with killing many security forces. In the end, these ten mujaahids who sold their lives for Jannah became shaheed as they were eager for it. Verily, all strength, praises and honor belongs to Allah." the statement of IMU said.
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistan Talibans (TTP) had already taken responsibility of this attack but now IMU claims that all 10 militants who attacked the Karachi International Airport earlier this week were IMU members.
TTP claims that this attack was revenge for the death of TTP former chief Hakimullah Mehsud while IMU says this attack was revenge against air strikes of Pakistan Army in tribal areas.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) has been a threat looming over Central Asia for 15 years. Once the threat was clear and present, IMU militants burst into southern Kyrgyzstan in the late summer of 1999 and fought with Kyrgyz troops and then returned the next summer fighting with troops in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Much has happened since then, and now the bulk of the IMU militants are in Pakistan's tribal areas and, increasingly, in northern Afghanistan, just across the border from Central Asia. Photos released by IMU of the attackers on the airport indicate all are young men in their early 20s. It indicates they are from a generation that was born in Pakistan.
It may be mentioned that thousands of Mujahids came to Pakistan from Central Asia during the Afghan Jihad against the former Soviet Union (USSR). These people continued to reside in Pakistan after the end of the Afghan Jihad and settled in tribal areas. They married local Pushtun women and a new generation that is known as Pushtun-Arabs and Pushtun-Uzbek came into being.