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.
Hi,
As a Non resident Indian living abroad ,I like this website for its moderate ,rational views and espousing national regeneration.
I interact on a daily basis with pakistanis living here which has helped to remove mutual distrust and I realise that we have so much in common.
Whenever I talk to them about Mayhem unleashed in India from 1993 Bomb blasts my pakistani friends suddenly go silent on why pakistan is still harbouring the perpetrators of 93 blasts
so I do not bother discuss plane Hijackers,parliament attckers and 26/11 plotters who are still at large in pakistan in view of our friendship but the hurt is still there..
Pakistani people please force your government to act against all sort of terrorism and not just terrorists who target Muslims…
the issue is not Muslims should not kill Muslim ,
its no human should kill another human being..
Jai ho!!!
Jaman
Everytime there is a terrorist attack in Pakistan, you have these trolls from India and elsewhere show up and slyly express their pleasure at the event while pretending to feel sorry for Pakistani awam.
The terrorists attacking Pakistan have been busy again. Three successive blast in Peshawar this time.
According to The News:
Instead of getting into senseless debates (which is what these Taliban supporters want us to get into) the test is simple, what is good for Pakistanis and what is not. Lets leave religion to God. PAKISTAN ZINDABAD.
Patriot, with due respect I think you should read Islamic history again and all you need is first fifty years or so. I won’t go into much details.