Defence officials on Wednesday told the National Assembly's standing committee on defence that insiders were involved in the attack on the PNS Mehran base in Karachi. Terrorists had stormed PNS Mehran in Karachi May 22 and destroyed two surveillance aircraft. The naval base siege lasted for 16 hours.

Sources told that senior navy and air force officials told the panel that their information was based on findings of an internal inquiry committee.

The media report pointed out that there have been discrepancies in the number of attackers.

Initially, interior minister Rehman Malik had said that six terrorists had stormed the base, four of whom died while two managed to escaped. An FIR registered two days after the attack said that between 10 and 12 terrorists had attacked; four of them had been killed and the rest escaped.

A senior member of the committee said that three officers, a sailor and four other personnel had allegedly assisted the terrorists in the attack.

He added that the large quantity of arms and ammunition and rocket launchers used in the attack could not be taken into the base without inside support.

The naval officials were of the opinion that it was not possible to carry out the attack without help from insiders.