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Uzbek militant group claims responsibility for Karachi airport attack

11 June 2014 18:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. An Uzbek militant group, whose members are believed to be hiding in Pakistan's restive Waziristan tribal region, claimed that its fighters had taken part in the late Sunday's deadly attack on Karachi airport, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Head of the Pakistani paramilitary forces, Rizwan Akhtar, had earlier stated the attackers looked like Uzbeks.

Uzbek militants, who are affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda, had been hiding in North and South Waziristan for years. They had been suspected of being behind some previous attacks in Pakistan, but it is the first time they have claimed responsibility for a high profile attack.

"Usman Ghazi, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), claimed responsibility for Sunday's terrorist attack on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport in a statement published on a Pakistani jihadist forum on Tuesday," according to pakistanrisk. com, a previously unknown website has reported.

The website says it offers strategic analysis of political and security issues in Pakistan.

Pakistani Taliban had earlier claimed responsibility for the attack that has claimed lives of nearly 30 security men and personnel of the Pakistan International Airlines.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Shahidullah Shahid now said it was a joint Taliban and IMU operation.

The Uzbek militant group describes the attacks as revenge for Pakistani airstrikes in North Waziristan on May 21 that targeted areas populated by Uzbek and other foreign militants.

"The IMU claims to have destroyed fighter jets and U.S. drones that were not visible to commercial airline passengers at the airport. There is no evidence to corroborate this claim. It is highly unlikely that drone aircraft would operate from an airport in Karachi, a congested megacity," the website said.

Uzbek fighters had been expelled from South Waziristan by a Taliban leader Mulla Nazir after the locals had turned against them for their harsh behavior with the tribesmen. They had then moved to North Waziristan and mostly live in Mir Ali area. The area had been focus of the military airstrikes in recent weeks.

Tohir Abduhalilovich Yuldashev, who became leader of the IMU after the killing of its founder Juma Namangani in Afghanistan in 2001, was believed to have been killed in South Waziristan in a U. S. drone strike in 2009.

The website also released two pictures showing ten attackers, in one with smiling faces and in another standing with Klashnikov rifles.

Ghazi, the IMU leader, called on Muslims in Pakistan to wage a war against the Pakistani state, according to the Pakistanrisk website.

Pakistani security personnel have asserted that there were ten attackers. The IMU statement purports that ten of its terrorists died in the attempted siege.