Adil Najam
UPDATE: April 5: More Pakistani Muslims – this time 30 in Chakwal – were martyred today by the enemies of Pakistan. Here are details from The News:
At least 24 persons died and 35 were injured at the Imambargah suicide bombing here. One killer blew himself up with explosives during annual Majlis Aza being held at the Imambargah located in the centre of the town at Mohala Sarpak of City police station area. The blast ripped apart the bodies of the faithful at the Imambargah, leaving a horrific scene of scattered body parts and blood all around the incident site.
Eyewitnesses said that following a Majlis, the faithful had crowded the main gate of the Imambargah, while those entering into the Imambargah were being frisked, when a youth 16/17 year old during checking blew himself up, which resulted in on the spot death of 20 persons, while the other four succumbed to their injuries in hospital. Four children were also included among the dead, they said. The bodies and the injured were shifted to the Chakwal District Headquarter Hospital, while some injured were sent to Rawalpindi.
Ambulances from Rawalpindi and Jhelum reached the scene of incident and stated relief operations. High police officials, DCO and heavy contingents of police also arrived following the blast. The police besieging the area have collected the evidences. Several vehicles were also damaged in the blast. Large number of people had thronged the hospital for finding out the welfare of their relatives, while the town remains drowned in an environment of mourning.
Six more Pakistanis were killed today by the enemies of Pakistan in a suicide attack in F-7 Islamabad. According to The News:
Six security men were killed and several others injured in a suicide blast near check post of Frontier Corps (FC) in Sector F-7/3 Margala Road, Islamabad on Saturday, Geo News reported. SSP Tahir Alam said security men were taking dinner when the attacker entered the check post and blew himself up, killing six of the security men and injuring several others. He denied any exchange of fire, saying the security men fired in the air to scare away any other attackers. Police has cordoned off the area. The injured have been brought to Poly Clinic Hospital. The incident has set off panic among area residents.
This is just more in the ongoing war on Pakistan by the enemies of Pakistan. Mosques are targeted in Jamrud, little girls are flogged in Swat, attacks are conducted in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and everywhere in between, political leaders are assassinated in Karachi, everyday and everywhere the enemy is within us and killing us in every way. It does not help that our so-called friends are also bombing and killing Pakistanis.
But why, oh why, are too many are still reluctant to call these suicide bombing murderers what they are. How may Pakistanis must they kill off before Pakistanis recognize the face of the enemies of Pakistan?
Today, April 4, former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was killed by Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. The killing has not stopped ever since. It is not that there was not killing before that. Even Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was himself no angel. But the demons unleashed by the this and other actions of Zia-ul-Haq continue to grow in size and sway over society. What will it take to push these demons back?
All I can say to Imran Khan’s comment is ….spoken like a true delusional Muslim. Education and the Taliban are an oxymoron. Have we not learnt from what they did to Afghanistan next door?
i also second those ppl who see hope in pakistanees and not foreign elements
i am v impressed and relieved and encouraged by the mass reaction aganist swat incident.
protests by common people, shock and outrage shown by our public has after a vvvv long while made me proud of our people.
i can say there is hope. we are not afghanees, we are not iraqees, we are not iraness, we are not saudis…
we are sane, moderate, liberal…pakistanees
so talibeeness be aware, you cant oppress us, like u oppress ppl in your country….our average man is made of a differnt fabric and that fabric will not tolerate the meideival cave age mentality that u dream to impose on us
bravo pakistan..bravo and long live
What @Imran Khan writes below was pretty much written by a columnist in thenews.com.pk within last couple of weeks: Let the corrupt system be cleaned-up by the Talibans so that the nation can start afresh.
What ‘nation’ are we talking about here? The same which elects these politicians in free elections? Is Pakistani political class singularly ‘corrupt’ in the world? Is the Pakistani political class the most corrupt in the world? Have not the political class of the most powerful country in the world–far, far, far more naturally and intellectually-endowed than Pakistan, not failed their nation in current circumstances? Isn’t Indian Lok Sabha infested with confirmed convicts? Why only Pakistan’s political class? Unless you have good answers you are basically the mouthpiece of proven myopics like General Zia ul Haq.
People like @Imran Khan and his ideological counterparts are worse for Pakistan than any external or internal enemies. They think that by killing a nation may be there will be a revival one day. I think not. I’d say that the Pakistani politicians are far less ‘corrupt’ then politicians in matching-social-milieu like India’s. I’d say that Pakistani people have shown, time and again through fair elections, that they make correct choices during respective elections’ circumstances.
Let people decide what they want. So long as the Khakis don’t intervene and the media stays free, Pakistan will be fine. Pakistanis will evolve out of the current crop of politicians if needed. There are no shortcuts to success in life other than winning lotteries. This is correct for individuals and for nations.
Imran Khan, if what you say is true, then this is very similar to the Naxalite/Maoist movements in East-Central India, that also claim to fight for the rights of poor downtrodden people against the elites and oppressors in these backward areas. But as they say, power corrupts and once leaders of such movements taste power, they get drunk on it and the rights of people they claim to be fighting for fall by the wayside. The only solution is to fight injustice whenever one sees it in one’s society – only then can you ensure that such vigilantist movements do not find an environment in which to rise and flourish.
A friend of mine who moved back to Pakistan after having lived in US for many years and lives close to where these bombs went off wrote me this in his email.
”
No matter what we say about the so-called Islamic-militants, no matter that we agree that they are stupid, evil, backwards, misguided, etc., etc., there are two facts no one can deny:
(1) these forces come from among the ordinary people, and,
(2) they represent a popular rejection of the decadent status quo.
The people of Pakistan may not ever vote for the extremists, but they will stand by silently and accept them because they promise a change from the corruption, exploitation and injustice that is inextricably intertwined and woven into our social fabric.
The real culprits are the custodians of the status quo, not the Taliban. These militants are an inevitable reaction, a manifestation of the popular resentment against the elitist establishment.
Having spent the last two years in Pakistan, even someone like me — a secular, westernized, free thinking person — says not only that these forces WILL take over, but that they SHOULD take over.
Needless to say that when these forces take over they will destroy everything and the country will be ruined for at least two generations to come. BUT, there is one thing they will achieve. They will also destroy the corrupt elite (along with thousands of innocents, unfortunately). That is the only way the cancer of corruption in Pakistan will be destroyed. These militants are like chemotherapy against the cancer that is the entrenched establishment. The medicine is very harmful for the healthy body, but it is the only way you can kill the cancer. One hopes that this chemotherapy will not completely kill the patient. And if the patient survives, then he shall, hopefully, have been cured.”
I could not agree with him more. It is time to get rid of the current elite in as painless way as they would allow to be gotten rid of. And we should do it ourselves rather than allowing the criminals to do it. This requires the youth to organize protest demanding their rights to
a. Education
b. Jobs
c. Health care
d. Security
A good model to follow is to organize peacefully in massive show of force like the South Koreans or for that matter Pakistani students against Pres. Ayub.