KOHAT, Jan 30: Police and the military authorities averted a missile attack by defusing three long-range missiles fitted with timers here on Friday evening.

The three timers had been set at 4 am, 5 am and 6 am for Saturday and were attached to the missiles loaded on a multi- barrel long-range missile launcher at a mountain in Shahpur village close to the Pakistan Airforce Base, Kohat.

Sources said that the targets of the missile attack were different locations of the Kohat air base. The base also serves as a technical training centre for recruits where 1200 cadets are present round the year.

A Peshawar-based military officer who didn't want to be identified, confirmed the report saying that "Missiles ready to be fired with timers have been recovered". However, he said he had no knowledge about the target of the attack or the direction of the missiles. "I don't know the exact direction of the missiles," he added.

According to sources in Kohat, a police patrol under the supervision of DSP City Quresh Khan, deputed in the wake of a rocket attack on the PAF base in Kohat, three days ago, found these missiles at 5.45 pm on Friday and informed senior officials. (The rockets had landed in the garden).

Soon army and airforce authorities and police reached the scene and cordoned off the area, said the sources. The SSP, Kohat, Mr Abid Ali, told Dawn that the length of each missile was 3.5 feet and their make was Russian.

He said the local army and airforce teams had dismantled the system and were moving the launcher and missiles from the mountain for further inspection and investigations.

It may be mentioned that more than 350 Al Qaeda members were ferried from the Kohat base to the Guantanamo detention camp, Cuba, via Afghanistan in 2002. During protest meetings held in those days, some groups had warned the government of attacking the Kohat prison, where these suspects had been kept and interrogated, and the air base.