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.
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.
@Amit
Muslim kings defeated Hindu kings and ruled thereafter. Its the way things worked back then. Islamic orthodoxy doesn’t mean oppression and murder of non-Muslims, so please take your so-called balanced perspective elsewhere.
I am so sick of Indians who constantly show up in this forum, and other Pakistani forums, and turn every thread into the same old favorite questions: Why does Pakistan exist ? Why did Islam come into the subcontinent .
Mr. Tarik, thanks for your kind reply. I was not accusing Islam of not having the spirit of secularism. I was just saying that stating that the state prefers one religion over the other goes against the spirit of equality for all religions that a modern nation must have. Its repurcussions are much more far reaching than you currently imagine. Think about it sometime.
You referred to the religious discrimination in my country. I am aware of those who perpetrate violence in the name of Hinduism. That is exactly why I fiercely oppose the idea of even a NOTIONALLY Hindu India because that would implicitly make certain people second class citizens, besides being the license for prejudice. This even though Hinduism explicitly states that all religions are equally valid. So I am mightily glad India is not the Hindu Republic of India. If that were so the fight against intolerance which is being waged across India would be nearly lost.
As for Muslim rule, I am aware that there were different kind of rulers. Akbar was a great liberal ruler who went against Islamic orthodoxy and promoted art based on Hindu epics. Aurangzeb’s elder brother Dara Shikoh, who sadly was executed by Aurangzeb, studied the philosophical connections between Islam and Hinduism and hypothesized that the Upanishads could be the secret book mentioned in the Koran. Aurangzeb on the other hand imposed Jazia on Hindus in their own land. Many muslim invaders attacked india and destroyed hindu places of worship. And please don’t be under the illusion that all Muslims of the subcontinent converted from Hinduism without any pressures or threat.
I’m not trying to attack Islam in any way but just offering a balanced perspective