PNS Mehran: Govt Should Ban Google Maps for Sensitive Locations

Before I say anything, let’s view following pictures, available publicly on Google Maps:

PNS_Mehran

PNS_Mehran_01

PNS_Mehran_02

PNS_Mehran_03

PNS_Mehran_05

PNS_Mehran_04

PNS_Mehran_06

PNS_Mehran_07

To view more images, and detailed geographical information of the Navy Base, PNS Mehran, that is being attacked by around or over a dozen highly armed gunmen, click this link.

You will witness that Google has updated satellite imagery of entire base, assets, compounds, buildings, its surroundings, fields and Chakora Nala around the base walls.

By going through the entire base via Google Maps, and navigating through the images available in there, one may not deny the fact that this service might have served terrorists for laying out their attack plan.

Due level of details mentioned in maps, it is likely that terrorists had studied these (Google) maps so well before their attack.

Like other nations, including India, at this point of time Pakistan government should direct Google to stop taking satellite images of sensitive locations through out the country. Government of Pakistan, through Ministry of IT, should send a detailed list of deployments where Google should be asked to blur the images and/or not take close-up images.

Now I am not saying that banning Google Maps for these sensitive locations will altogether stop terrorist attacks, but it will play a role in securing our installations, to some extent at least.

Attack Details:

  • The militants stormed hangars housing aircraft, officials said. Destroying at least one Maritime surveillance aircraft, P3C-Orion.
  • According to BBC there’s a possible hostage situation at PNS Mehran
  • As of now, 4 deaths, half a dozen injuries are confirmed by DG PR Pakistan Navy
  • Officials say it is a terror attack, and commandos are fighting back.
  • No group has claimed the raid
  • The operation is continuing…

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


  • This is not a excuse. What is Pakistan Forces doing to prevent any attack. they know Pak Forces are on target after May 2, then where was Navy and Air force Security? this is lame excuse. sorry to say. but reality is clear in front of us. god bless pakistan

    • am agree with you. i too worried that our armed forces are not capable to protect themselves.. how they will protect us…

      • This is what our enemies wanted! , they are trying to demoralize Pakistani Forces and want to show the world that Pakistani Forces are not capable of safeguarding their assets so how could they safeguard their atomic assets,

        • Keep in mind that this “enemy” can just be TTP inside Pakistan, maybe even inside your city.

          • Yes, i was disappointed by the approach of this Attack.2 terrorists managed to flee in presence of thousands of forces, (shamful). But we cannot withdraw from this fight against terrorism now, we have to fix it both internally & externally. Long Live Pakistan!

    • satellite jamming? now that is an idea that the Soviets spent years working on, all to no avail…..can you come up with something?

  • “Govt Should Ban Google Maps for Sensitive Locations”

    It makes me wonder. The govt personnels who have the authority to make decision or atleast make a call for it, are they educated enough to know whats Google Maps?

    • Well i agree they are not educated enough plus they dont have time and brains to think upon this issue. coz they are “busy enough” in setting up the bank accounts and luxuries for themselves.

  • Very Sensitive… Govt… Should took step…
    Please spread the word as you can…

    • its definately possible .

      pakistan has blocked youtube world wide by mistake in the past so why cant google :P

  • blocking all these stuff is the need of time. and have to plan new security measures and strategies.

  • It is childishly naive to think them guys are depending on Google maps to see us. They have way too advanced stuff to get their things done.

    Reading this blog is becoming difficult and annoying every day…due to these poping up ads :(

  • These terrorists have exposed Pak Forces capabilities so well…We were wasting time being proud of our Army and others…

    Pak Forces Na Kam Ki Na Kaj Ki Dushman Anaaj Ki…

    • Shame on you.. why you blame Pake Foj ? us ki waja se araam se sotey ho gar mey..

      • I assure you…you will sleep in much comfortable way…if you even reduce army. Army can never assure security, unless there is economic stability in country. This what General Kiyani said in one speed too. You can not protect every area of country unless insiders are loyal and sincere to country. It is true example of “Ghar to aag lagi, ghar kay chiragh say”.

      • Hum bhi aram sai sotay hain aur wo bhi, even un kai radar bhi araam sai sotay hain. ISI bhi so rahi hai, jabhi na 1.5 hours tak helicopters ka pata chalta hai na terrorists planning ki koi intelligence. sotay raho!

    • i totally agree with you. just in this month of may we have been attacked so many times that even a pakistani cant count .still 8 days to go in this month. shame on our forces. they cant defend themselves .what else would they do for us

  • Govt getting Dollar, They have NO TIME for focusing Like this matter.

  • Problems can not stop by just hiding things. so banning Google maps won’t help…rather will create more curiosity among users of specific location.

    If our non serious Government and Military is serious then they should start a serious crackdown and hang everybody who is having ammunition, guns and bullets in custody. We have to crush this Taliban and Taliban mentality. Unless, we are not clear that this is not ISLAM to kill and spread terror in world…we will suffer.

    Yeh hum main say he hain…we have to accept this bitter truth…We have to stop putting blame on Jews, Hindus and Christians. We have to stop blaming on Israel, India and US. The one who is doing this is MUSLIM and 95% Pakistanis.

    Yeh hum main say he hain…Jo apnay ghar to jala rahay hain. Please understand this truth and stop blaming on Google and technology. Google Maps for US and Europe are quite clear than here…Why these Talibanis are not able to attack there? What is the reason they are helpless to even kill a single dog of US or Europe… reason is simple and clear…Their People, Govt and Military are clear that terrorists are our enemies…But here, many are in favour of these terrorists. Govt is totally sleeping in even doing effort to crush them.

    • Manoo Ya Na Manooo…Kuch bhee nahi hona…Pakistanis issi tarah martay aur qatal hotay rahain gay…aur yeh partian…Kabhi nato supply for DHARNA aur kabhi DRONES per dharna dainay main masroof rahain gee… Koi inn say poochay k kia tumhain TALIBANS k khilaf bhee DHARNA daina chahiyeh k nahi?

      Sub Leaders logoon ko fool banay main lagay huay hain…Yeh barabar k shareek hain…bcoz they are doing nothing to stop or crackdown against them. OSAMA case is infront of you. Even we are trying to save who gave him shelter inside Pakistan… IMAGINE…

    • Afsoos ki baat ye hai k jo Taliban ko apne bache kehta hai, jo Swat operation ko ghalat kehta hai… jisse koi terrorist nazar hi nhi aata, wo aj sub se ziada popular leader hai…(Imran Khan)…. Pakistan ka kuch nhi ho sakta

  • Our politicians money is in foreign reserves so they are worried about them more than Pakistan.

    Imran khan is our last hope. Pakistan Zindabaad. Gen Pashaa should resign now…

    • Imran khan is not even clear about himself…what he can do for us. he is active to indirectly support Taliban…He is just playing with many…on cheap anti US slogan.

      Will problems of Pakistan will finish, if US will disappear from this world? No, because problem is not because of US, it is our own created problems.

      He blamed MQM, not he meet thier leader…He supported Musharraf with hope that may be get PM, not against him…He is anti PMLN but sat in one meeting with them too…So he stands no where.

      He have no team, no policy, no economic agenda…Just Anti US slogans…that can not help people in real life.

  • Your concerns are correct but there is a bit more than you know the image posted on Google are old images and not the current images so you cannot exactly say that the Aircarft of XYZ category is parked at the that same spot, if you have the Google Earth 5.1 or greater version you can see that this image is dated 29 Septamber 2010 so this is an old image, however using only the old image we can all see that the spots where you can enter into the PNS Mehran, I dout that the security measure using just google where not considerd in this situation you are right that Enemy of the state can get us.

  • Please also note that this PNS Mehran is the first Naval Air Base of Pakistan and the firts unit of Naval Command to have its own Air base etc

  • Sir!
    This is جمھوریت کا انتقام. Everyone is busy, some in saving political affiliations, some is tranfering money, some in scoring, some in waiting, some is pleaseing !Everyone like you have right to shout and similarly everyone has the right to ignore! after all this is demo-crazy

  • Ban, ban, ban, ban!!!!!

    It’s so easy just to do that. Tomorrow, we will rape women and then just Ban women from the streets. Ban, ban!!!

    Everything should be banned! Kuwait just banned Pakistanis from entering their country. Do you have the balls to ban Arabs from ours? Ban, ban!!

    Those planning such attacks are not from the caves, but educated individuals who can see holes in security, just like anyone else. Furthermore, many in power have sold their souls and loyalty. I am sure there are insiders involved in each and every attack on the forces.

    So, instead of banning, step up and start dobbing in suspicious characters. Those taking bribes should be shot on the streets. Those abusing power should be hanged on the streets. We need to wipe out many if we are to return to peace.

    Ban, ban, ban!!!

      • we as PK taught from day one if some thing presents you a challenge cant control/compete any thing just ban it….Indian movies, Facebook, youtube…hell in 80s cordless was banned in PK… and what about cell phones and GPS….. mind boggling to read this on “IT blog” The rate this baning mania is going soon well see ban GPRS/EDGE and 3g :(

  • Govt is banning every thing in pakistan by not providing the electricity :) so no computers no internet and no google maps very much back to the stone ages where there is no water, shelter, transport, lights. Tomorrow these people can claim that every human should not have eyes so they cannot see the military bases. The same maps were available for these stupids who are paid by 60% of our budget to them and still there are question on there safety civilians.

  • The govt and all the armed forces officials should be hanged to death at minar e Pakistan. The educated and sensible people should control and govern the country.

  • very sad, what the related govt. officials and the armed forces are doing? still they say that “we are invincible”. they are just providing the world a definite argument they cannot save their atomic warheads.

    • Make it clear that attackers are mostly ex military persons..No civilian can attack like this.

        • Proofs are there…but I can’t share. But our Military and ISI knows about them. I can’t share on open forums.

        • One more thing…in GHQ attack also…many new things were disclosed…But be sure that these are Pakistanis who are doing all this…Surely for the sake of huge bags of money, not for religion. :)

          • I think if you can’t share proofs then you should not share your thoughts either. Because without proofs your statement will only be considered an opinion.

  • for all those , who says about security , mere bhayon ,9/11 par amarica men itne security hone ke bawajod itna bara terror attack howa .this can be happen to any 1 any where.yahan beth ka sirf apna muu chalane bohat asan hai . i ask the admin to chek iP’s of some comments and u will found out ke who r these ( outsiders )people that r commenting like this.

  • Any individual of inside the PNS Mehran would be involved in surely.because it is not possible to enter that kind of place with high material of arms.

  • this topic shouldn’t be discussed here
    @Aamir Atta

    this topic should be removed bcoz the discussion is directly conflicting with National Security

    • Unless U will not discuss national security issues among public…U can’t get things done. We have been hiding things from 63 years…what is outcome. If in 1980’s things would have be open, then we could have better Pakistan, instead of conservative, weak, poor, low profile country.

      Today, situation has reached to lowest level, where countries are banning Pakistanis visa even.

      • National security issues are not discussed with public anywhere in the world. However they are discussed with democratically elected government. We should better choose better people.

        As far as visas are concerned that is not because of the current situation. There is a policy change in the West because of the economic situation around the world.

    • Who ever will come…this will happen…Unless he is not serious to crack down. If Zia was able to spread Mullaism in country in few years…Why it is difficult to take back nation to culture like Turkey or Malaysia.

      We are neither living respectable life other great nations nor we are preaching Islam in true essence. We are hung in between. and outcome is this.

  • Every one has a right to criticise. But please keep it mind it seems that its all part of CIA’s psychological worefair against Pakistan. Now we are feeling unsafe and arguing that if military installations are not safe then what about a common Pakistan? I think verst is yet to come, we should not give up hope. We have many brave, courageous and capable oficers and jawans in our armed fources. Furthermore, all true pakistanies can fight for their country’s defence. Night is always darken before the dawn. We can criticize but cann’t leave our brave armed forces alone in this fight. all of them are not currept, some of them are surely. think about those who lost their lives while fight with attackers today? They are shaheeds. Slam to them and their families. Long live pakistan

  • I am against blocking of any type. Pakistan needs to eliminate terrorism. There is no other way.

    Blocking of sensitive locations on Google maps is not going to stop terrorist attacks. The policy of banning things only serve the forces of status quo.

    In a city of 20 million two people on a motorcycle shoot dead some people and government places ban on double sawari (pillion riding) to punish all law abiding citizens.

    Similarly kidnapping and other kinds of crime has not been eliminated by banning tinted glasses on car windows.

    You have to wake up and revamp your security and reinforce your defences.

  • Well, the country whose president and prime minister both are ex prisoners, nothing can be happened except this. We are no where, no one wants to hear us, no one wants to welcome us. One of the low profile countries of the world is Pakistan…wow what an image.

    Hamare president ko tours se hi fursat nahi, kon ji raha hai kon mar raha hai is se kisi ko koi garz nahi. Every one is corrupt from top to bottom. Blast hone k baad Rehman Malik sahab ate hain, then he barks and keeps on barking for 2 days, sirf baatein. Only words no work, no action, no planning, no initiative nothing. Guys 2 more years of this government and till then no hopes :( We want someone like Mustafa Kamal, Imran Khan etc to rule the country otherwise result is here and it will be same ever after…..

    God bless us

  • bhai kuch bhi hojaye……….BHUTTO AB BHI ZINDA HAI………ye sab BHUTTO k naam par horaha hai. Bechara Zulfiqar Bhutto ki rooh kabar mai tarap rahi ho k ye mere naam par kia horaha hai!! jiye PPP, kiye JIYALAY!!!

  • The map may have helped to some extent but the questions to be answered are far more and serious. The solution definitely is not banning those maps.

    I think any trained security professional can tell you how to identify, assets, vulnerabilities, threats and define controls to mitigate risk.

  • ary BHAHIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

    ANKEIN BAND KARNY SAY ……….. KATRA TAL NAHI JATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

  • Close your eyes and dont face the reality.

    Fight with the root cause dont close your eyes. You cannot stop communication

  • This should be named BanPakistani.PK

    Dude. Ban is just a very cruel word. The right word here is “RESTRICT.”

  • Yes the Government should do this, only if someone tells them to do it.
    In all this drama what we need to see is who is the ultimate beneficiary? Two P3 Orions destroyed, ok that’s millions of dollars worth of military hardware destroyed. But does the general public know that P3 Orions are meant to hunt submarines? So Pakistan Navy is “BACK TO SQUARE ZERO”. So who is the ultimate beneficiary? Obviously someone who feels threatened by this hardware, and who could that be? The US, no, Iran well no, India,hmm ? And let’s go back a few years back in to history? Who was the ultimate looser when Sri Lankan Cricket team was attacked in Lahore? Or who was the ultimate winner? Connect the dots people and you will start getting answers. The Taliban are too dumb to make out the difference between a Fokker and a P3 Orion, someone really well informed is feeding and assisting them. When militants attack someplace in India a Pakistani out fit is blamed, when militants attack someplace in Pakistan , a Pakistan based group is blamed. Pretty weird, isn’t it? Win win for India and loose loose for Pakistan. Come on people wake up!

  • Sorry dude I do not agree with the idea of blocking google earth or map it helps me while driving and navigation dnt knw abt the others !!! Even if U will ban this tomorrow something like this will be again in market with some other name… So it’s not a solution…. Google map / earth is not only showing images of Pakistan sensitive places it is also showing other sensitive places of the world i.e. area 51, many other high profile areas of nevada etc !!! so please dnt cover ur failure by keeping an allegation on such innovations, take a life dude !!

    I dnt knw hw many of u have used this path which is connecting from causeway to sharah e faisal, if u would have ever passed from there u will notice that there was no sign of any security check posts nor der is any boundary walls. Anyone can decoy by saying that he is going to paf meausem and can divert his path and go inside easily so please our army n other armed forces should now take this seriously as now we are already on the verge and its not to far that other states will start saying that when our armed forces cannot protect their own assets den how we will protect nukes!!! so please this is lame excuse … we should come up with better solution instead of living in fool paradise :s

      • sorry dude I still don’t agree with U…. banning or jamming sensitive areas only means U have technology of satellite jamming…. please take a life do U even know how much it cost!!?? This nation cannot afford new tax to get this technology!!!

        Jamming or banning images of sensitive area is like you stand up on mobilink tower and stops ufone signals!!

        So this was complete failure we should admit it, instead of closing our eyes.

        Thanks & no offense to anyone!!

  • btw…if it helps terrorists than why it can’t help our forces and navy????????????

  • اپنی فوج پر تھو تھو کرنے سے پہلے سوچ لیں کہ نیو یارک ٹائمز نے آج ہی یہ سوال اٹھایا ہے کہ پاکستان اپنی بیسس کے حفاظت نہیں کر سکتا اپنے ایٹمی اثاثوں کی کیا حفاظت کرے گا یہ ہیں وہ بہانے جو تراشے جا رہے ہیں .. کیا آپکے ذہن میں بھی یہی سوال ہے ؟ اگر ہاں تو جان لیجیے دشمن یہی چاہتا ہے ..اجتمائی مایوسی … آپکی وہ طاقت جو انڈیا کو ٤٠ سالوں سے جنگ سے روکی ہوئی ہے اور امریکا سرکار کو مجبور کر رہی ہے کے وہ پاکستان پر کھل کر نازل ہونے سے پہلے سازشیں کر کے پاکستان کو کمزور کرے ..مایوس قوموں کے فیصلے دشمن کیا کرتے ہیں …فوج پر انگلی اٹھاتے سوچ لیں کہ وہ اتنے ہی کامیاب ہیں جتنے باقی ہم وطن ..اگلا بجٹ دیکھ لے جیے گا کہ ٩٠ فیصد کھانے کا الزام کتنا بڑا جھوٹ ہے …
    اس کارنامے سے صرف اور صرف انڈیا کا فائدہ ہے یا پھرانکا جونہوں نے یہ طیارے دے …تنقید بوہت آسان کام ہے ضرور کریں لیکن حل بھی دیں.

  • اپنی فوج پر تھو تھو کرنے سے پہلے سوچ لیں کہ نیو یارک ٹائمز نے آج ہی یہ سوال اٹھایا ہے کہ پاکستان اپنی بیسس کے حفاظت نہیں کر سکتا اپنے ایٹمی اثاثوں کی کیا حفاظت کرے گا یہ ہیں وہ بہانے جو تراشے جا رہے ہیں .. کیا آپکے ذہن میں بھی یہی سوال ہے ؟ اگر ہاں تو جان لیجیے دشمن یہی چاہتا ہے ..اجتمائی مایوسی … آپکی وہ طاقت جو انڈیا کو ٤٠ سالوں سے جنگ سے روکی ہوئی ہے اور امریکا سرکار کو مجبور کر رہی ہے کے وہ پاکستان پر کھل کر نازل ہونے سے پہلے سازشیں کر کے پاکستان کو کمزور کرے ..مایوس قوموں کے فیصلے دشمن کیا کرتے ہیں …فوج پر انگلی اٹھاتے سوچ لیں کہ وہ اتنے ہی کامیاب ہیں جتنے باقی ہم وطن ..اگلا بجٹ دیکھ لے جیے گا کہ ٩٠ فیصد کھانے کا الزام کتنا بڑا جھوٹ ہے …
    اس کارنامے سے صرف اور صرف انڈیا کا فائدہ ہے یا پھرانکا جونہوں نے یہ طیارے دے …تنقید بوہت آسان کام ہے ضرور کریں لیکن حل بھی دیں. .

  • Instead of implying that the attack was made easier due to Google Maps, lets face the real problem eh?

    The Army was not capable of stopping AN AMERICAN RAID in Abottabad? The US FORCES came, attacked, and also left, while the Pakistan army was sleeping within a few hundred kilometers.

    In Karachi, again, a few bunch of terrorist bright down a Militery installation of Airforce and Navy for 16 hours? What a laugh.

    So banning Google Maps will do nothing. It’s just another excuse of putting the blame on something else for the utter incompetence of the Army.

    What if it wasn’t terrorists? What if some enemy Country decided to attack Pakistan, will we blame Google Maps too? These terrorists didn’t attack at the border, they attacked a place in the heart of the city.. Just imagine what an enemy country can do with high-tech militery devices & satellites. They don’t need Google Maps to see these areas.. They already know where they are..

    Heck.. even without Google Maps, even I KNOW where this location was.. I’ve seen the place, and it’s very easiy to ask rest of the details about it. It wasn’t a hidden location. No point in blurring something which every person knows about. It’s easy information.. lol :)

    Stop kidding yourselves.

    The location isn’t what protects us, it’s the Army who should protect. No matter how high the security is, no matter how hidden the area is.. in the end, protection comes from the Army, Navy, Airforce and their skills in controlling the area.. which in this case didnt work..

    Wake up Pakistan.. Wake up.. stop blaming little things like Google maps, when bigger ones are arising on the horizon.

  • I would like to add. These terrorists really opened up our eyes at how “skilled & capable” the Pakistani forces are to protect our country. They can’t even protect their own base… they didn’t even know what hit them!

    16 hours fighting with a few bunch of terrorists??? Pathetic. How did they let this happen in the first place?

    Sorry, but no amount of blurring or banning OF MAPS will hide the fact that it was the Pakistani Forces failure. … oh no.. not an old OUTDATED google map.

    The failure is our own.

    I would advice NOT to encourage such articles. The Government only needs an excuse and they will BAN everything because they don’t want the blame on themselves.

    Someday they’ll end up BANNING all news channels, websites and blogs for providing updates & helping the terrorists of the conditions in the country :/

    Like “GEO SPORTS” a sports channel was banned due to SECURITY REASONS. :/ Unbelievable? Go figure :S

    • They already banned many channels in November 2007 emergency. Funny that they left internet open. This time i think they will not make same mistake…

  • so whats next..

    Those terrorists must have definately used mobile phones as well during planning of these attacks.
    So should mobile phone networks too be banned or shutdown because “terrorist could be using them for planning terror attacks”?

    Needlessly banning things won’t solve the problem,they need to use common sense and enhance physical security around these installations and think like terrorist in order to thwart their nefarious plans..

    Technically speaking 1100 personnel were suppose to be guarding this naval base.. but sadly just 6 people not just sucessfully penetrated their defenses but accomplished their mission and 2 of them shockingly even managed to escape .. simply mind boggling..

  • its been 21 years when US did the aerial bombardment on Iraq and within no time destroyed Iraqi infrastructure. its pity since than Iraq. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya etc have been subjected to such attacks but UNFORTUNATELY muslim world has never done anything to prevent or counter these BARBARIC wetern onslaught. Dont you think its high time we sit togather and worked out somethingbefore its too late

  • I don’t know what point the OP is trying to prove by providing these images?
    does blocking Google maps OR Ordering them to remove sensitive area images will resolve all the issue. specially when we are now in 21th century and technology is going beyond the imagination?

    For your concerns let me tell you that, in today’s world Google is not the only provider of these kinda services (need a prove??)

    check this >>> http://www.flashearth.com/
    and there are plenty more available on the net.
    and in fact any one can buy commercial imagery from satellite providers as well. (Specially CIA and RAW can obtain live feeds)

    So just like other stupid banning ideas, this is also a nonsense type of excuse.

    The solution is not to introduce bans.
    I’m tired of this… is ko ban karo…os ko ban karo…. mobiles ko ban karo…. motorcycles ko ba karo…. websites ko ban karo….etc etc.

    What is this???…. this is not the solution.
    The solution is to improve the security. and to define our true enemies.
    Believe me whomever is behind this act, has back from a strong supporter, and that supporter who want to destabilize our defense. will come back again and again.

  • OR

    Paki army generals should take action and do some thing about ISI sponsored terrorists.

  • shahid saleem meray khayal se tu aap ko bhi ban parna chaiye. aap phir agai is blog pe deemagh ki dahi bananey.

  • Regarding this post, I completely agree, we need to be careful. I myself realized this problem back in Dec last year and stopped tagging locations that might be used against us. For instance our biggest hospitals are tagged and they will be taken out first thing if there is ever a war. Not that they wouldn’t know already but why should we make it easy for others?

  • Google maps should be block in Pakistan and plz don’t underestimate our forces they are doing what they should do.

  • It’s very non professional, rather careless, rather conventional(100 years old) attitude from our Govt. and the NATION Of course.
    A 20 years old enthusiast gamer can plan a sneak attack on any bloody freaking map on earth.
    Specially the one’s who only play all games with “veteran” levels.
    Disclosure of any property, and sensitive information of any sort may result in collateral damage.
    May ALLAH S.W.T. protect us; our forces are exposed already. :|


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