Around 10 gunmen attacked a security checkpost outside Pakistan’s Karachi airport recently. The terrorists were exchanging fire with troops, a day after a siege by the Taliban left 37 dead. The attack raises further questions about authorities’ ability to secure key facilities in the face of a seemingly resurgent enemy, as a nascent peace process with the Pakistani Taliban lies in tatters.

The checkpost is located at the entrance of an ASF camp some 500 metres away from the main airport premises, or one kilometre from the passenger terminal. Rangers, police and army commandos arrived at the camp, which has little by way of cover and took up positions to engage the militants in an open field.

The assault came as Pakistan launched air strikes on a militantinfested tribal district, killing 15 people in apparent retaliation for June 9 assault. Ten Taliban fighters, some dressed in military uniform and armed with machine guns, grenades and rocket launchers launched the attack on June 8. Their main objective “was to destroy the aircraft on the ground but there was only minor damage to two to three aircraft,” Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said. The Taliban had vowed the first attack was just the beginning as they sought to avenge the death of their former chief Hakimullah Mehsud.