Dockyard attackers planned to hijack Navy frigate

From Dawn:

KARACHI: While the Navy continues to remain tight-lipped about the attack on its dockyard in West Wharf on Sept 6, having issued a bare-bones statement 48 hours after the incident, further details have been obtained by Dawn that reveal the extent of radicalisation within the Navy. 

According to informed sources, the attack was carried out entirely by serving Navy personnel, along with Owais Jakharani, a former Navy cadet who could have been given access inside without too much trouble. 

“It seems the intention was to hijack PNS Zulfiqar [a frigate purchased from China and inducted in July 2009],” said one of these sources. 

“The group of would-be hijackers, led by a senior officer, was even saluted by the guard at the bottom of the gangway, before another became suspicious of their intentions and alerted other personnel.” 

According to another source, no fewer than 17 more individuals — all Navy personnel, including the three arrested from Mastung in Balochistan while reportedly trying to make their way to Afghanistan — have been rounded up based on information extracted from those apprehended. 

It is believed the suspects are currently being interrogated at one of the military’s interrogation centres. 

Also, while Commander Kamran Asif told Associated Press that the militants were armed with rocket launchers, assault rifles and hand-grenades, Dawn has been given information that the weapons had already been smuggled into the dockyard and had been stored in lockers by the rogue personnel. 

There has been considerable speculation on whether the attackers arrived at the dockyard by sea or took the West Wharf road that leads to the site. 

According to a fisheries worker, when fishermen make their way back into the harbour from the open sea, four to five Navy patrol boats carrying heavily armed personnel check their vessels when they pass the dockyard. 

But as it turns out, neither the sea nor the land route was needed for entry for all but one of the attackers. The Navy, it seems, was keen to keep the entire incident under wraps from the outset.

Hmmm...abandoned American military equipment, Benghazi inventory, missing mh370, opposing troops stripped to underwear prior to being murdered...

ISIS/ISIL/IS is certainly accumulating quite the inventory with which to veil their next incursions.