Adil Najam
Once again our eyes swell up, our hearts miss a beat, our body shakes in shock and anger, and the banality of mayhem hits us in the gut, as the enemies of Pakistan continue on their killing spree. 23 Pakistanis are dead in Lahore in today’s dastardly attack already. More remain in critical conditions.
We have been here before: here and here and here and here and here here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and it seems everwhere. One cannot bear to count any more. One shudders to think. Just how many Pakistanis will be slaughtered by the beasts who do this before their hatred is satisfied?
According to Dawn:
LAHORE: Gunmen detonated a car bomb near police and intelligence agency offices on Lahore’s Fatima Jinnah road Wednesday, killing 23 people and wounding more than 100, officials said. At least four men with rifles stepped out from the car and opened fire on the intelligence agency building, then set off a massive blast when security guards returned fire, officials said.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik suggested the attack could be retaliation for the government’s military offensive to rout Taliban militants from the northwestern Swat Valley. Wednesday’s attack was the third major strike in Lahore in recent months. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest bombing. Police said one suspect was detained.
… The explosion sheared the walls off buildings in a main business district. TV footage showed bleeding bystanders and emergency workers carrying the injured toward ambulances. ‘The moment the blast happened, everything went dark in front of my eyes,’ witness Muhammad Ali said. ‘The way the blast happened, then gunfire, it looked as if there was a battle going on.’ Sajjad Bhutta, a senior government official in Lahore, told reporters that a car carrying several gunmen pulled up in a street between offices of the emergency police and the Inter-Service Intelligence.
‘As some people came out from that vehicle and starting firing at the ISI office, the guards from inside that building returned fire,’ he said. As the firing continued, the car suddenly exploded, he said. The ISI and police buildings were both badly damaged. An AP reporter saw dozens of troops entering the ISI building to supervise the rescue work, while gunshots were heard from inside the building even one hour after the blast. Television footage showed officers dragging a black-shirted man from the scene.
Malik blamed the attack on militants that government forces are fighting in the Swat Valley and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas near Afghanistan. ‘These terrorists were defeated in FATA and Swat and now they have come here,’ he told reporters.
How much of this is related to teh operation going on in FATA and Swat and how much is a continuation of what has been happening month after month and week after week is unclear, but what is very clear is that, as always, Pakistanis die, Pakistanis cry.
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It’s very sad. How does life goes on in Pakistan? This should be stop.
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@hassan tariq
no islam is not secular
god and his prophets were secular, but ironically there is nothing secular about a rabbi, priest or a mulauna
its a lie that there is anything secular about islami shariat…..those who dream of democracy or secularism under the wings of shariah are exteremly misinformed or disillusioned……
if you dont agree with an islamic scholar’s interpretation of islam or his version of right or wrong, he has the power to declare you non-muslim and give a futwa to behead you…i dont understand how this is secular?
if u want secularim, you will need to turn away from power hungry, ready to flog you, behead you, or decalre you kafir mullah, and turn towards a sufi….who says, (as one friend here said earlier)….masjid dha dhay, mundar dha thay, dil na kissi tha dha,,,,
if we are ready to be honest we need to question…..how wld we feel the god for whom e one is fighting he says at the end of this game “i really dont care if u were jew, or christian, or sitarah purast…all i care is that you believed in me, in doomsday and did good things”……(see surah buqra ayat 62)
but wohoooooooooooo a priest’s heart will burn in agony that wah his business doesnt mean anything….a mullah teaching his followers look we are the greast all others are infidels will die with envy that oh no…..this cant be so, wht about my shop….i declare futwas e day, whose aamal are acceptable and whose not…..but my friends this is what quran says……..what we as humanbeings do is all that matters…..I HOPE BIG EGOS WILL NOT LIKE THIS SIMPLE FACT….
i dont see anything wrong with what amit said
we all think we are warriors of god…jews, christians, muslims…all are wrapped in their egos, fighting for wht their own superiority. i think biggest crime in world are committed in the name of religion, and organized religion specially. wht havoc has been caused by rabbis in synagogues, priests in churches and mullahs in the name of shariat…
similarly in dark ages, european kings used chruch to paronize their greed for power and imperialism, and muslim sultans plundered the whole world in name or religion….
those who want to seek the truth can search history
and it is so sad that we are so sensitive to criticim, and specially when it comes from people we dont like.
eg hajaj bin yousuf, killed his own nephew muhammd bin qasim by sewing him in a donkeys hide and burning him alive
and people, who just dont have educated facts, but text book, or word of mouth knowledge of wht hostory was, and how glorified they are….will never be openminded to accept the truth and let go of their egos….
in todays world too, crimes are committed in the name of ideologies and nationalism. this is how humans are fed to fuel the war watched by power hungry people.
for me, anyone who puts another human being’s life less worthy of his or hers and who support such ideoligies which allow you to kill other people, and be too senstive to ones own faults are worth nothing….
west is west and developed cause they can openly debate, and have freedom of opinion but with principles (which means not demanding freedom to voice support for criminals), we on the other hand have so many reservations. we demand freedom but the moment an indian comes here and say smthng, many within us start howling their ego-ridden howls….
the fact is we have hit rock bottom and we shld welcome any criticism which can help us improve….PHLZZZZZZZZZZ i am so SICK OF WE ARE THE ONE CHOSEN BY GOD AND WE ARE THE BEST
“Muslim kings defeated Hindu kings and ruled thereafter. Its the way things worked back then.”
Things work the same way now too, at some places. Like Israel defeating an array of muslim nations single-handedly and ruling thereafter in their land.
It was wrong then, and it is wrong now.
I have to agree with Aamir Ali.
@Amit, would an Indian ever dream of telling the Chinese that communism or the way they choose to structure their society is not in accordance with your definition of a “modern” nation, and to advise them how to run their country.
As foreigners and neighbours, we can take an interest in the society, culture and affairs of our neighbours, but must never dictate to them how to run their country, whether they should or should not have a state religion etc. Don’t you think it’s better for them to work it out on their own?
Amit, let’s focus on the events at hand here and drop this irrelevant thread.