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“.
@D_a_n:
Your comments are solid proof of the success of western propaganda. How tragic that today Muslims are not ready to trust other Muslims, but they have no hesitation in swallowing everything that Islamophobic west dishes out to them. Mark my words. There cannot be any solution to Pakistan’s woes by marginalizing Islam. It is the so called “secularists” who have brought Pakistan to disaster by going against Islamic values. However, Pakistan will return to glory after tiding over current crisis, will return to its Islamic roots and be most prosperous and strongest country in Asia far surpassing India and China.
yet more important developments…more local tribes seem to be joining the fight the cursed Taliban…
http://thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=1750 7
Is this developing into a pattern? I would like to think so but im not sure and what is finally driving this? have the local tribesmen been emboldened by the Army action in Bajaur and the determination with which it has been carried out? Maybe?
or has the government finally begun to talk to the tribes and started to make efforts to get them on board against Taliban? I really do hope that is the case as just as in Iraq….unless the local tribes join this fight and help the army….victory will be elusive or maybe even impossible….
@ Mustafa Kamal…
will you please just STOP with this gibberish of the ummah and start to look at your own house for once?? WHY has the mullah always shown such utter disdain for their own home?
Also, this is not brother fighting brother….for the one’s we fight are Takfiri animals …and once they set out on this heretical path of Takfir and termed me and my family as kaafir and wajib ul Qatl….they stopped being our brothers and stopped being Muslim…
This is a fight the takfiri animal has imposed on us….and before we can stand upto any external enemies….we MUST deal with the termites eating us from within…
and so what if they are our own people…if you see your own brother pick up a gun against your children…your parents and your wife…what would you do? you would do everything in your power to stop him…even killing him if thats what it takes….
Yeh Takfiri Mullay apnay maan baap kay nahin hotay…aur tum un ko bhai bana rahay ho??? deliberately delusional…
Talibans now in Multan; http://jang.com.pk/jang/sep2008-daily/25-09-2008/u p28.gif
Nawaz League by not condemning Taliban is playing with nation’s security.
Someone suggested on a different post that we should build a monument to all the people who have died in suicide bombings. I think that is a brilliant idea. We should do this so that we are reminded of the uselessness of these murders.
An article in ‘The Nation’ today.
http://tinyurl.com/52no2h
“.. So, if they want to put their resources at stake and ‘go get their man’ why should we have our soldiers slaughtered? ..”
“…So let those who led us in dig us out…”
God help us all.