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File photo (not of scene) AP/Press Association Images

Gunmen kill passenger on jet at Pakistan airport

The unidentified gunmen opened fire on the plane as it landed.

UNIDENTIFIED GUNMEN OPENED fire on a passenger plane landing at the main airport in Peshawar in Pakistan’s troubled northwest, killing one passenger and wounding two crew members, police and airline representatives said today.

The incident took place late yesterday as the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight arrived in Peshawar from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia with more than 170 passengers on board, airline spokesman Mashud Tajwar said.

“The shots were fired from outside the airport, one lady passenger and two stewards were wounded, the woman later died in the hospital,” Tajwar told AFP, adding that the aeroplane landed safely.

Flights at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar have been temporarily halted following the gunfire, police said.

Muhammad Faisal, a senior police official, said that four to five bullets hit the aeroplane.

“Flight operations have been temporarily suspended,” Faisal told AFP.

The attack followed the Pakistan military’s launch on June 16 of a major military offensive in the most dangerous tribal district of North Waziristan along the Afghan border, where Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants had taken refuge.

Yesterday, Ansar-ul-Mujahedin militant group, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, threatened to carry more attacks after claiming responsibility for a car suicide attack in North Waziristan which killed two soldiers and a civilian.

“It is beginning of our offensive and we will launch attacks against government and local tribesmen if they form an anti-Taliban force,” militant group spokesman Abu Baseer told AFP via telephone from an unknown location.

Though officials have not blamed any group for the incident at Peshawar airport, Taliban militants last week warned international firms and airlines to wind up their business in Pakistan or face attacks in the wake of the military offensive.

- © AFP 2014.

Read: Karachi international airport reopens after siege which killed 30>

Read: One dead, 30 injured as a series of earthquakes hit southern Pakistan>

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    Mute Upandover
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    Aug 7th 2013, 6:47 PM

    Horrific bout the soldiers being shot and my heart goes to their families, but the Americans do it every day, in fact as we speak they are killing innocent people in the name of stopping terrorism, who will stop them?

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    Mute John Burke
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    Aug 7th 2013, 7:15 PM

    Innocent of what? I doubt the US would shoot a child for going to school!

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    Mute Mr Jingles
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    Aug 7th 2013, 8:17 PM

    They’ll bomb the feck out of them anyway!

    33
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    Mute Patrick Moran
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    Aug 7th 2013, 6:50 PM

    Is this some sort of attempt at reverse psychology ?

    56
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    Mute Brian O' Connor
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    Aug 7th 2013, 7:12 PM

    Muslim virgins are similar to Christian angels, they don’t actually engage.

    35
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    Mute Shanti Om
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    Aug 7th 2013, 11:37 PM

    What is this obsession with virgins? Is it that they know there will be no point of reference to show them up as being bad in bed?

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    Mute Sandra Turner
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    Aug 7th 2013, 7:02 PM

    He wants to be a martyr. Has his eye on all those virgins in heaven!

    35
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    Mute Joe Harbison
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    Aug 7th 2013, 7:09 PM

    Probably, or it could be that he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement in a military high security prison. Remember Gary Gilmore

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    Mute John Burke
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    Aug 7th 2013, 7:42 PM

    Turns out the proper translation is grapes not virgins.

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    Mute guardian
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    Aug 7th 2013, 8:53 PM

    Ha let him have his wish. I wonder as his lungs collapse ans his brain dies will he realise this religious stuff is crap as he fades to eternal darkness no light.

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    Mute Vincent Power
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    Aug 7th 2013, 10:35 PM

    Well John you have upset a lot of prospective suicide bombers. The grapes of wrath eh

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    Mute Mjhint
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    Aug 8th 2013, 12:31 AM

    I dont think the translation is grapes but its not virgins. Its actually maidens & it says something about their hair as well & rivers of wine.

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    Mute Upandover
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    Aug 7th 2013, 6:54 PM

    Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti American in anyway, more anti war!

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    Mute Grainne Macklin
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    Aug 7th 2013, 6:48 PM

    Wow!!

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    Mute Little Jim
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    Aug 7th 2013, 7:25 PM

    OMG!
    (the G is interchangeable, depending on your views)
    Seriously, this man needs to be kept alive for as long as possible.
    The only Hell I belive in is in the mind of the living.
    He just wants out, thinks there’s some reward coming his way, believes it’s right to destroy life in the name of his creator of life.
    He should sit in a box and think about these things for the remainder of his existence.
    That is the only thing he fears.

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    Mute Little Jim
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    Aug 7th 2013, 7:30 PM

    (apologies for the omg bit on such a sensitive subject)

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