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“.
A sad sad day in the history of this country. Yet more precious lives lost for some phantom reason.
We have yet to see a unified condemnation of suicide bombings by the Ulema and religious leaders. In fact it is sad that some of them have even showed sympathy towards it. They MUST raise there voices together against this so called shortcut to Jannah. Islam does not teach hurting anyone let alone your own brethren. Similarly the government must open multiple fronts (not just military) to tackle this scourge of our times. The Media too must play its role in educating the masses that cutting ones own wrist is not the solution.
Our prayers for those who lost their lives and May Allah give strength to their families. Ameen.
ShahidnUSA > The situation seems hopelessly grim. Pakistan needs a strong Defibrillator but who is there to apply it?
I feel very disheartened especially because the common man in Pakistan does not have the tools to make things right.
In my opinion, people are lacking the basics that are needed for a democratic society to exist. The tools that they need are free thinking, ability to reason, and freedom from hatred. A basic wisdom is missing.Groups can be emotionally charged at the whim of a charismatic person and steered towards fighting each other on the basis of thoughts and beliefs. While this exists in the building blocks of our society, then the nation can not stand.
Outside threats and threats from within have torn out the very essence of what it means to be a nation.
We can say that we can make schools for all people. Schools that will educate children and teach them tolerance and ability to reason and to make wise decisions. Doing just that will cause great backlash from many people who oppose schooling but even if we are able to do it, it seems as if it is too late. The challenges are already knocking on our door. No, actually the challenges have broken down the door and staring us down. We may already be too late.
Ibrahim wrote: “May Allah destroy the secularists! Can you say ameen to that? I hope so!”
No, I can’t say ameen to that. I can say Ameen to, “let there be peace on earth for all”.
A secularist is someone who believes that religion should be excluded from government and education. That is no reason to be destroyed. A person who should be destroyed is one who commits acts like the one that happened at the hotel bombing.
Ibrahim, why do you support so much violence? Destroy this and destroy that. This will give you heart troubles because of all this tension.
No security can stop this.
This cancer is inside your body.
How are you going to remove this? Major surgery? But then you
will be killing your own people.
This cancer was let to proliferate and you were sleeping and procrastinating and praying as it will go away by itself.
Hope this cancer is benign and can be treated.
The marriott blast is one of the biggest attact we have ever heard or seen in past yrs.
It is very surprising to hear in the news that despite TOP LEVEL SECIRITY, a truck driver managed to reached at the boundary of hotel. Sorry to say, but if this is the security, then you can say in other words that security level is 0% which has ended with a blast killing several innocent people.
Ask a question yourself, if this is the security which u were trusting, who is going to trust the security NOW. There will be a question asked everytime that since this security level is not enough…what next ?? What steps to be taken??
I was more surprised to see in news tonight, one official advised the news correspondant that they do not have a single “SCANNER” to scan the vehicle. This is ofcourse a lacking aspect which needs to be rectified immediately.
May god give strength to those whose loved ones are no more and help the families of injured people to come up with this disaster.
Are we alive to see these kind of news every day,week or month? We donot have any personal relation with those people who are dead, but we all have a heart to feel the pains, we all have the mind to unite and we all have determination to fight.