Hyderabad: Heavily-armed militants attacked a Pakistan Air Force training base in Punjab province during the wee hours, damaging three grounded aircraft, on Satuday, officials said.
The attack comes a day after 15 soldiers were killed in two separate terror strikes.
The Mianwali Training Air Base of Pakistan Air Force came under attack by terrorists which Pakistan military said its soldiers foiled by killing three of the attackers and cornering three others.
"However, during the attack, some damage to three already grounded aircraft and a fuel bowser also occurred, the statement from Pakistan Army said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the training base attack.
According to the Pakistan Army, three terrorists were neutralised while entering the base and the remaining three terrorists were cornered/isolated due to timely and effective response by the troops on duty.
It said "a comprehensive joint clearance and combing operation is in the final stages to completely clear the area."
"Pakistan Armed Forces remain committed to eliminating the menace of terrorism from the country at all costs," it added.
The terrorists have timed the attack hours after a series of terror strikes which left 15 soldiers dead in the restive Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
In one incident, 14 Pakistani soldiers travelling in two vehicles were killed in an ambush on Friday. The vehicles were carrying security forces from Pasni to the Ormara area of Gwadar district in the restive south-western Balochistan province.
Also Friday's toll is the worst casualty suffered by the military in Balochistan province this year where separatists and militants have stepped up their attacks since a ceasefire deal between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Pakistan government ended in November 2022.
In a separate incident that preceded Gwadar attack, a series of bomb blasts targeting convoys of police and security forces rocked the Dera Ismail Khan district, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It killed six people, including a soldier, and wounded 24 others hours before the Gwadar attack.
Statistics show that terrorists and separatists have been targeting security forces in Pakistan, mainly troubled Balochistan province throughout the year, PTI reported.
While two soldiers were killed in the Khoro area of Awaran district last Sunday, 12 soldiers were killed in separate military operations in the Zhob and Sui areas of Balochistan earlier in July.
Rise in violence has become a trend in Pakistan since the wake of the Taliban getting power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
A Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) report published in September said the country suffered 99 attacks in August, the highest number in a single month since November 2014. For a nine year period, the number of militant attacks in August was the highest tally for monthly strikes.
According to the report, Gwadar has seen the highest number of attacks in recent months and in August separatists belonging to the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army attacked a convoy of 23 Chinese engineers in the port town of Gwadar.
A report from the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), a think tank, said the security forces lost at least 386 personnel in the first nine months of 2023, marking an eight-year high.
"Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were the primary centres of violence, accounting for nearly 94 per cent of all fatalities and 89 per cent of attacks (including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations) recorded during this period," it said.
