Asma Mirza and Adil Najam
(New videos and pictures added).
At aftaar time, Marriott Hotel in Islamabad was attacked by an explosive truck. Reportedly it has totally destroyed the hotel. This was the second bomb blast at the hotel in less than a year, adds to the feeling that Islamabad is now a major target of these dastardly killers (here, here, here). The pictures (from BBC) tell part of the story. But only a part.
One should note that this was the biggest of but just one of three suicide bomb blasts in Pakistan. The other two were in the tribal areas of Pakistan where Pakistan military was targeted.
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These are yet more in the long string of attacks on Pakistan. A list so long that one has even lost a sense of how long it is!
Here is an incomplete list of only the ‘major’ suicide attacks on Pakistan this year (from The News):
More than 1,200 people have been killed in attacks, most of them suicide bombings blasts, in the past year. Here is a list of major attacks since the start of 2008:
January 10: Sixteen police and four civilians killed in a suicide bomb attack on police outside the high court in the city of Lahore.
January 14: Bomb kills 10 people at a crowded street market in Karachi.
February 9: Suicide bomber kills 25 people at opposition election rally in the northwestern town of Charsadda.
February 16: Suicide car bomber strikes a rally by party of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto in the northwestern tribal town of Parachinar, killing 37.
February 22: Roadside bomb hits wedding party in northern Swat, killing at least 14 people.
February 25: Suicide bomber kills army surgeon general Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baig and seven other people in Rawalpindi.
February 29: A suicide bomber kills 44 people in Mingora, the main town in the troubled Swat valley, during the funeral of three policemen killed by a roadside bomb earlier in the day.
March 2: Suicide bomber kills 43 at a meeting of anti-militant tribal elders in the northwestern district of Darra Adam Khel.
March 4: Two suicide bombers attack Pakistan Naval War College in Lahore, killing five people and wounding 19.
March 10: Suicide attackers detonate two huge truck bombs in Lahore, killing 26 people and partly demolishing the Federal Investigation Agency building in the city.
March 15: Bomb blast at Italian restaurant in Islamabad kills a Turkish woman and wounds 10 others, including four agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
May 19: Suicide bomber kills 13 at an army bakery in the northwestern town of Mardan.
July 2: Suicide car bomb outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad kills eight people.
July 6: Suicide bomber kills 15 people in an attack on police in Islamabad during a rally to mark the anniversary of an army raid on the radical Red Mosque.
August 12: Roadside bomb rips through Pakistan air force bus in Peshawar, killing 13.
August 19: Suicide bomber kills 23 people at a hospital in northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
August 21: Twin suicide attacks kill at least 57 people outside Pakistan’s main arms factory in Wah, near Islamabad.
August 28: A bomb attack targeting policemen kill 10 people in the northwest garrison town of Bannu near the Afghan border.
September 3: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani escapes an apparent assassination attempt when two shots hit his motorcade, just three days before the country’s presidential election.
September 6: Suicide bomber kills 33 people at a security checkpoint near Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.
September 11: Suspected militants hurl grenades and fire into a mosque in Peshawar killing at least 20 worshippers.
September 20: A suspected suicide attack outside the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad killing at least 40 people, with more feared trapped inside the building.
According to police sources, the attacking truck was carrying 1000 KG (1 Ton) of explosives. Causing massive damage and causalities. Supposedly F-5 is one of the most secure area of Islamabad. 40+ killed in this havoc and many injured.The security was even tighter today than usual because the new President, Asif Ali Zardari, was making his first address to the parliament. Some wonder how related this was to what he had to say there:
The ones killed include the drivers who were waiting outside in parking lot and the large number of security guards. Also note, just next to Marriott there is a bus stop as well and a queue of taxis wait there. Emergency declared in all hospitals.Gas pipelines was exploded in the process causing more damage. Building nearby such as Balochistan House, Gulshan e Jinnah (living apartments for federal govt. employees) badly affected as well.
According to the news analysts as seen reporting on TV, it can be one of the biggest explosion seen in Pakistan’s history. Analyst Najam Sethi aptly said, “This is 9/11 of Pakistan“.
@ Akram Hussain & UMAIR…
Well….to comment on what you wrote….
what you need to understand that for nonsense to become accepted truth…it must be repeated until it becomes what is true…so in order to stop that from happening, it must be refuted ad nauseum…
now you might find it ‘annoying’ and a ‘waste of time and intelligence’ to find me doing what I feel is right by trying to make my point over and over again….sadly the state that we are reduced to now, it must be done and done repeatedly..for what a certain section of people amongst us is counting on is that we will get tired of refuting them…or get bored of doing so…for make no mistake the ‘other side’ realises what the stakes are this time…
my apologies for ‘annoying’ you with my defense for my country and the concept of it limping onto another 60 odd yeard of existance…..
I agree with Akram Hussain, this little personal tiff between these two is getting annoying. Just because you keep repeating exactly the same point again and again and again and again in ever increasingly abusive language does not mean that you are either convincing each other or anyone else of your point. You both just come out looking silly (actually teh word I am thinking of is stronger but would probably be moderated out so I will not use it!)
For “D_a_n” and “ZECCHETTl”, whoever they may be.
Do both of you realize just how silly and childish you sound, repeating the same nonsense again and again, being so petty in your comments that even those who might agree with your position starts despising your style.
Please give this up or take your personal bickering to a personal conversation and spare all the rest of us your childish inanities.
Moderators, please take note of these people abusing other’s time and intelligence.
Is it our war or not?
Our problems did not begin in 9/11 or with the invasion of Afghanistan by the US. They began much earlier with the efforts of a religiously driven lobby to undo the original concept of Pakistan which has been under attack since Independence in 1947. The argument that it is not our war is in effect another effort to fix our identity within the radical camp.
…
However, the establishment of a religious state in the region was neither in the mind of the Quaid-e- Azam nor Allama Iqbal, its architects. The pressure of the Islamists manifested itself immediately after the death of the Quaid when Prime Minister Liaquat Ali moved the Objectives Resolution in the Constituent Assembly on March 25, 1949. This resolution was in contradiction to the Quaid’s idea of a modern, democratic and a secular state. The resolution would not have been moved if the Quaid had been alive.
http://tinyurl.com/4bjrk8
@ Ibrahim…
what you spoke makes about as much sense as a warm jacket in July…. :)
However, for discolsure’s sake…if, according to you, by Quoting my Prophet PBUH I embaress myself then please rest assure that I will continue to do so…as is my want!
for the beautiful thing about what my Prophet PBUH said….is that it is as much mine as it is yours or the 3rd persons…
unfortunately I thought that you’d be pleased when I quoted him….but then..I shouldnt be surprised…the Mullah often goes into convulsions when his world view collides with what my Prophet taught….
PS: it turns out your Hero Mehsud might be alive….very sad that…but I assume that Allah SWT only wants to give him further rope to hang himself…..meanwhile….you may continue to Worship him 10 times a day..
PSS: I quote the Prophet PBUH….and I am the heretic!Beautiful! :)
@D_a_n
There are a few problems with you’ve said…
“He was not Muslim…Based on what my prophet PBUH has told, ie, ‘He, from whose hand and tongue other Momins are not safe is not a Momin’ …. Hence since other Pakistani Momins were not safe from him….QED!
Praise be to the clarity of what my Prophet PBUH has declared! :)”
Well said, and I do agree. Did you also know that the Prophet (SAW) also said: “He who cheats, is not from us”? I guess that would be most of Pakistan then. Perhaps “is not from us” means “not from the true, good believers” – so you might be going far by saying that all those who bring trouble to their neighbours and cheat are kaafir – Allahu A’lim
“Additionally, i must call comment on the following that you have written:
1. you wrote … ‘ I am not telling you what is haram and halal’
but YET you ended your previous post with the words.. ‘It is haram to claim to know the unseen’ so yes…you were telling me :)”
What I meant by me not telling you is what is haram/halal is that I was not making up what is haram or halal from myself. I was merely reminding you of what is haram and halal that is already established in the shariat – such as claiming to know the unseen or the fate of people!
“2. You wrote…. ‘By the way my Eid is not ruined whether he dies now or lives to 100 - no difference to me’ …
Yes…im glad for your clarification…and this can only be the case if you just dont care wether Pakistan sinks or swims ….nor care for how many Pakistani’s are maimed and killed by the Mullah…how Good it must be to have unburndened oneself as such….Hence, if you do not care, what is the point of commenting…rather callous…. ”
I think we need to realise the fine distinction between “Pakistan” and the “people of Pakistan”. Pakistan is the state, the government and the law system of the land, whereas the people are those living within that land. If Pakistan sinks, does that mean all 160million Pakistani become extinct? Of course not, it would simply mean a revolution that changes the state, the government and the law system that hopefully, inshaAllah, liberates the people, eliminates poverty, and more. Don’t take disrespect, but you sound like the Israelis and the hoo-haa the created when Iranian president Ahmadinejad called for “Israel to be wiped off the map”. Although it was a mistranslation, the Israelis chanted that he wanted them extinct! – which was not the case. He wants, as we all do, an end to the brutal occupation of the Muslim lands there.
“3. you wrote …’Wake up O Ummah’ …
Just WHEN are you and yoru kind going to realise that there is no such thing practically speaking…as the Ummah…
do you see the Ummah running to help Pakistan in its darkest hour…..running towards Pakistan to draw her towrads it’s chaati…? I dont see any…
were on our own for the most part and will have to lick the Takfiri animal on our own….”
What you have to realise is that the Ummah is currently battered, bruised and sick but not dead. It will revive as promised by the Prophet (SAW) with a khilafah ‘alal minhajul nabuwwa – Caliphate on the methodology of the prophet. This is hardly the darkest hour for Pakistan (the state that is, not the people). Why the heck should anyone help Pakistan (again, the state, not the people) anyway? What did Pakistan do for Iraq when they were invaded in 2003 and bombed it to smithereens and 4 million Muslim children were made yateem?! What did glorious Pakistan do for Afghanistan when the enemies of Allah invaded it in 2001?! That’s right – Pakistan provided airbases to assist the kuffar!! So don’t expect anybody to help you and the corrupt government, state, and man-made law that you love.
Just to re-clarify, the people of Pakistan are not the same as Pakistan. To give you an example of the difference: the people are impoverished and mostly illiterate, yet the state is NUCLEAR ARMED. It’s about time the people are finally liberated of this corrupt establishment after 60 years that has given them no benefit. May Allah hasten the arrival of the much awaited pan-Islamic caliphate, ameen.
Ok, one final point:
“4. As for the fact that he might not be dead…its a claim by the Taliban ..which is far far far from the Gospel truth…it is a well known fact that these folks will sell their mothers if it suits them…(case in point being their taking help from a plethora of anti-Pakistan sources to fund their Satanical struggle) ….so why should they admit this?”
The Taliban would sell their mothers would they? My, my, how the Pakistan media has brainwashed you. For your information the Taleban are selling their lives to fight for their freedom against the invaders! And the only ones who sell their mothers these days is Pakistan!! Even the US said this with respect to Aafia Siddiqui that Pakistan sell their sisters for a “fistful of dollars”. Is THIS the Pakistan you would die to defend???
I say once again, Wake up O Ummah!
Dan, please stop talking. I would say that you embarrass yourself, but we are way past that point.
If you are going to use this hadith as you quote it, then please tell him how does a person who is not a Momin becomes a non-Muslim?! Are all Muslims mominoon? Momin is the highest category of taqwa amongst the Muslims. So, those who are not Momin aren’t necessarily non-Muslims.
Secularism and secularists, on the other hand, is kufr and are kuffar because it calls for putting aside the laws of Allah that He sent down and ruling a country with man-made laws.
@ Zecchetti…
Oh ye of little knowledge…must I continue to school thee :)
He was not Muslim…Based on what my prophet PBUH has told, ie, ‘He, from whose hand and tongue other Momins are not safe is not a Momin’ …. Hence since other Pakistani Momins were not safe from him….QED!
Praise be to the clarity of what my Prophet PBUH has declared! :)
Additionally, i must call comment on the following that you have written:
1. you wrote … ‘ I am not telling you what is haram and halal’
but YET you ended your previous post with the words.. ‘It is haram to claim to know the unseen’ so yes…you were telling me :)
2. You wrote…. ‘By the way my Eid is not ruined whether he dies now or lives to 100 - no difference to me’ …
Yes…im glad for your clarification…and this can only be the case if you just dont care wether Pakistan sinks or swims ….nor care for how many Pakistani’s are maimed and killed by the Mullah…how Good it must be to have unburndened oneself as such….Hence, if you do not care, what is the point of commenting…rather callous….
3. you wrote …’Wake up O Ummah’ …
Just WHEN are you and yoru kind going to realise that there is no such thing practically speaking…as the Ummah…
do you see the Ummah running to help Pakistan in its darkest hour…..running towards Pakistan to draw her towrads it’s chaati…? I dont see any…
were on our own for the most part and will have to lick the Takfiri animal on our own….
4. As for the fact that he might not be dead…its a claim by the Taliban ..which is far far far from the Gospel truth…it is a well known fact that these folks will sell their mothers if it suits them…(case in point being their taking help from a plethora of anti-Pakistan sources to fund their Satanical struggle) ….so why should they admit this?
‘