PAKISTAN’S prime minister has condemned a deadly insurgent attack at a luxury hotel on the south-western coast, describing it as an act of terrorism.
In a statement yesterday, Imran Khan praised the “initial response by security guards and security forces” for preventing greater loss of life at the Pearl Continental hotel in Gwadar. His statement came as Pakistan police chiefs raised the death toll from the attack to five.
The military said on Saturday that one security guard was killed in the attack, and all guests were safely evacuated. But police said that five people – not including the four attackers – died, and it is not known if they were civilians, hotel guards or security forces.
The four attackers were also killed.
A Baluch separatist group has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying four of its fighters were involved.
MEANWHILE, a Myanmar National Airlines plane made an emergency landing at Mandalay International Airport after the front landing gear failed.
All 82 passengers and seven crew members aboard Flight UB103 from Yangon were declared safe after the Brazilian-made Embraer 190-LR touched down on its rear sets of wheels before the plane’s nose scraped the runway, sending off a shower of sparks as it slowed to a stop.
A spokesman for the airport said the pilot informed the control tower before landing that he was unable to pull down the nose wheels.
ELSEWHERE, Albania’s centre-right opposition has continued protests calling for the resignation of the government and for an early parliamentary election.
The leadership of the Democratic Party-led opposition decided to hold a small protest yesterday against the arrest of a senior party official and called a potentially larger, national rally for today.
“Barbarous violence against hundreds of protesters... will get tomorrow the proportional response from the united and determined people,” said Democrat leader Lulzim Basha, speaking in front of hundreds of supporters at the Tirana police department.
Police arrested 50 people, while 31 others were detained and later released, for acts against police and public buildings.
FINALLY, Australia’s Prime Minister has launched his conservative coalition’s election campaign with an extraordinarily personal presentation.
Scott Morrison is his government’s third prime minister in its six years in office and still remains relatively unknown to many Australians. His played recorded interviews with family members that covered his wife Jenny’s diagnosis with endometriosis, their 14-year failed battle to conceive through IVF before having two daughters naturally, and his brother-in-law’s struggle with MS.
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