Three Karachi airport attack suspects indicted

A Pakistani court on Saturday indicted three people for their involvement in a Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)-claimed attack on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport in June 2014.

The three suspects - Sarmad Siddiqui, Asif Zaheer and Nadeem - were produced in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi and pleaded not guilty to the charges against them, Dawn online reported.

The court has now summoned all witnesses in the case for the next hearing scheduled for March 14.

An ATC in 2014 had remanded the three suspects for allegedly providing logistical support, funds and weapons to the militants who attacked the Karachi airport.

The brazen five-hour attack claimed 28 lives, including those of 10 attackers.

The attack started when gunmen disguised as police guards stormed the terminal after opening fire with machine guns and a rocket launcher.

This attack led to the launching of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan to control growing militancy in the country.

The same year, the attack's mastermind Abu Abdul Rehman Al Maani was killed during overnight airstrikes in 2014 carried out by fighter jets controlled jointly by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and Pakistan Army in North Waziristan.

Intelligence and military sources said that Al Maani was considered a key commander of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), also now famous by the name of Islamic Movement of Turkestan.

The IMU, an organisation of militants mostly from the central Asian Uzbek state, had claimed that its suicide bombers carried out the attack in alliance with TTP.