The woman's daughter was sitting next to her when she was shot in the head, PIA official Mohammad Kifayatullah Khan said. "When I went inside the plane, I saw the woman lying on the seat and her nine-year-old daughter was crying, 'My mother is dead, my mother is dead'," said Khan.
"All the passengers were panicked. Some of them wanted to get out as soon as possible because they were afraid of fire inside the plane." The incident will raise further questions about whether the government is really prepared to retaliate against the Taliban after it announced a military operation to flush the militants from their mountain strongholds in North Waziristan on June 15. Pakistani jets have pounded suspected militant hideouts and the Taliban have vowed counter attacks.
Monitoring Desk adds: "At least five rounds hit the plane damaging it partially, but the pilot successfully landed the plane saving the lives of rest of the passengers", a PIA spokesman was quoted by a private TV channel. He added that a flight steward and two passengers sustained injuries in the shooting on the plane with 178 passengers on board.
"A critically injured female passenger was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital," the spokesman said. Quoting sources, the TV channel said the flight steward, Ijaz Chaudhry was shifted to Combined Military Hospital owing to the seriousness of this wounds.
Meanwhile, an global TV channel said the passenger jet, with the flight number of PK-756 was an Airbus A310. According to it, flight into Peshawar's airport have been fired upon in the past, but none are believed to have been hit until Monday's incident. The attack on the aircraft follows a deadly assault on the airport in Karachi on June 8.