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“.
Sirius, I’ll just make two points and then you can believe what you want.
1) This is not the 80’s. Afghanistan is not under attack from the Soviets. And the US is not an ally of the ‘people’ (and the TV dramas are no longer classy). Quite the opposite. Also this type of operation cannot have the backing of the ISI or the Pak govt, unlike the operation the Americans conducted in the 80s. I am just saying that from a logistical point of view this is absurd.
2) We have to look at evidence. We have to watch for patterns, especially recent patterns. Who’s been doing these type of attacks, not just in Isb but all over the globe?
Now, I don’t care if these Taliban types have connections back to the 80s. We have to look at what is sustaining this movement today and find a way to stop it.
And I really can’t imagine what “spoils” would interest US to invade Pakistan (if that’s what you mean). US can hardly sustain the two current wars. They have spent billions (or is it trillions now?) in Iraq and Afghanistan and look what that did to their economy. And first of all, it just sounds ridiculous that the US would be taking over Pakistan, a nuclear armed nation of 150 million. And secondly, for what? I don’t think they want to inherit this mess.
Ok that was more than two points. Now I must get back to studying about database management systems.
This is the beginning of the end of Pakistan. This is a lesson from God for a people who don
@Faraz
Yes, this could just be a conspiracy theory. and US involvement does seem far fetched. But it might be possible for CIA to secretly fund and have a puppet mullah operating out of a cave acting as their front-face. The actual executors of these attacks (or the mullah for that matter) may not know who the real people may be.
But I agree this does seem like a conspiracy theory. Anyhow, even if the CIA is funding them, the mullah and the executors ought of have a shred to brain left to do something thinking of their own.
This may seem a stretch overnight if it was overnight.
In the 80’s , the US fought a covert war from Pakistan in Afghanistan against the Soviets. As this is now factual history accepted by all sides, you cant accuse me of making this up.
At that time, Osama had volunteered to fight in the mujahideen and he was trained by the CIA, as were many other people. Also, a well accepted fact now.
The CIA heavily funded Pakistan to support and train these freedom fighters which led to the creation of madressas.
And by all means, dont think this was our brainstorm. This was all planned out by US thinktanks as the way of growing this generation of freedom fighters for their covert war.
Excellent move…they won the war ….watch Charlie Wilson’s War.
Now with all that infrastructure in place, and left over kids in Afghanistan who have now become men and only know war, how hard is it to give them a new goal to fight towards?
Also, important to mention in this evil spreading from Afghanistan to Pakistan is the point that a lot of the tribals are rigid in their traditions and purdah and all that stuff anyway. But before this, they were peaceful. What has changed now for us to have this home grown problem?
The difference is on the one hand they see lawlessness, corrupt politicians and according to them modernism and vulgarity. The other extreme is this Taliban brand.
With no middle ground they’ve chosen the Taliban. Didnt you see this right here in Islamabad during Lal masjid?
Slightly conservative muslims even sided with the militants because it was better than chosing Mush who they hated more.
By no means am I siding with the Taliban menace here, but I know what im definitely against. The far more dangerous US and they want Pakistan more than the Taliban do.
Taliban are being ‘ allowed’ to blow this country to bits and America will come and take the spoils.
Sirius, it takes a bit of a stretch to believe that the U.S. has operatives on Pakistani soil running a covert operation, whose objectives are to kidnap Pakistani boys/men, brainwash them to the extent that they can’t think for themselves, find 1000 kgs of explosives and load it into a truck, and program the brainwashed victim (actually victims in this case) to drive to a hotel and detonate the truck. I find that very hard to believe, specially when there’s no evidence that points in that direction. It sounds too much like a good ol’ consipiracy theory. We have seen plenty of evidence of Taliban type suicide bombers, and that’s exactly what this seems to be.
If we can’t agree who the enemy is, what the enemy’s motives are, and where the enemy is how can we even begin to fight this enemy?