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.
This is a complex issue, but I think what is at the heart of it is that at the end of the day, we are ALL human beings. No matter what religion anyone is, no one human being has ANY right to kill another human being. It is as simple as that.
Unfortunately extremism is rampant everywhere today. However, more so than any religion, poverty and lack of opportunity are what fuels this. When people are dirt poor, living hand to mouth, not eating real food for days, maybe weeks on end, have no source of income, etc, they will in their desperation join any cause that will promise them food to eat and money to live. It comes down to daily survival. It is easier for extremist groups to recruit and brainwash these people because they have nothing else.
While this may be a cause, this still absolutely DOES NOT justify killing people. But the problem comes in figuring out what is the solution to this problem. Because there is a new generation of kids growing up in extreme poverty who are vulnerable to this kind of activity. Simply eliminating the adults won’t solve this problem. It’s a systemic issue that needs to be addressed. Education and opportunity are so vital. There has to be a REAL change.
@ patriot
I am sorry but Mike is right here. Define true muslims please. Human beings kill humanbeings, mothers kill children, husbands kill wives and so on, so face the truth and start to live outside the realm of religion when we start to discuss barbarianism like such we are witnessing. If only we can look beyond what a muslim would do or not and see that religion is the only reason we are so easy to be used as weapons against our own people, may be someday we will get rid of these animals. Unless people who are now living this nightmare get up and start to attack all mullahs, madrassas and bycott all or any mosque and gathering they want them to be, these fanatics will be leaches attached to the body that is near collapse. True Muslim!!!! That is just a cliche’. I can pray 5 times at home, and I can read an understand my book and I dont hurt other people, nor i kill them but to many I am still not a true muslim because i dont cover my head, i wear pants and shirts, I talk to men, I love music and I live in a so called infidel country, so you define true muslim for me please. To many people, educated and good people I am bad enough to be judged and be percieved as one with a bad end come dooms day because I do not follow the norms of a muslim in Pakistan or arab or whatever other muslim country. We all have judgements and ideas about what is wrong and right and true and false, and many of us tend to think if some one is not living the way we are they are doing something wrong and that is not only muslims. Christians, jews every one thinks that way so in reality there is no true msulim jew or christian, Only GOD knows…
But open history and read through it and see how actually people of every faith have killed people of same faith or other faiths. Do you deny sunni shia conflict as muslim killings muslims? Or do you think one of them truely is not a muslim? which brings me back to…TRUE muslim is a subjective term when we have lost sight of faith as a discipline of life and not as a sword ready to cut your head off should you move left or right from what it asks you to do.
Sorry I am not trying to offend anyone but root of this Evil is religion even if it is a foriegn hand like Talat’s show showed all arabs doing this…had we as a nation be not so emotional about religion and let every ones faith and God be its own and not fall prey to these mullahs on every cornor of the street, we would not be played so mercilessly by them.
BTW some one on page 4 had a great idea of hang them all and nuke or gas them all….that is the only language they understand, and anyone who says one word in their favor should share the fate….it is a matter of country’s stability not a matter of religious freedom or right of paksitanis’ as muslims but rights of paksitani’s as PAKISTANIs only.
1- Muslim should not kill a muslim, if a so called muslim kills another muslim then please know it like you name that person has nothing to do with Islam and he is not a muslim
2- I pray for the families who lost there dear ones, may ALLAH give them patience.
3- Talebans are enemy of Pakistan and I am happy that army is doing this operation and killing them. This is natural that they will stike back. Talebans are not fighting in name of Islam they are just bunch of idiots. They have spoiled a word Taleban it self which has no relation to terrorism.
4- I dont want to blame it on US, India, Arabs, Afghanistan or anyone else, although they are a fiar share of destabilizing Pakistan but sadly the fact is these people are pakistanis also, and there do exists il-literates in Pakistan who have a twisted version of islam in there head.
5- For me this afghanistan if they can get there act together it can help also so stablize the north west part of Pakistan. When the house near you burns eventually your house will be engulfed in fire also.
6-We or government or as just plain simple muslims should work together to educate ourselves, friends and pakistanis the true meaning of islam. For me army operation is a short term solution but long term solution should be focused on the root cause which is to educate the proper teaching of islam getting back to Quran and Sunnah and not imam, wahabi, sufi, sect, mullah version etc. The call should be toward the proper understanding of quran and sunnah.
7-We all know our lethargic judeciary system and government should make it better so people can really get the justice.
8-There is an idiot “Taleb” that made a comment that these cockroaches talebans have more interest in Pakistan then us..Brother should i slap on your face so you can see the reality of what??????
9-Large majority of pakistanis are not like this, we are moderate people.
10- I am pissed at our scholars and ulemas there main job is to teach and do proper dawah and spread teaching of islam. Islam has provided a very good form in Friday Prayer sermons they can teach the proper meaning or islam and how these talebans are wrong but sadly….
11- I really like the idea that someone suggested that people should help our security forces. INSHALLAH.
INSHALLAH the people who support taleban and the talebans may they rot in hell, or unless there is some guidance to them from ALLAH which is what i am praying for, if they have the best interest of Islam and Pakistan in there heart. If they are so keen to help Islam and Pakistan there are million of Halal way to do it but certainly no sane person will ever accept what they are doing is right.
This taleban is a “fitna” and “fitna” is more dangerous then killing as if you kill someone only one life is lost but due to “fitna” many people are effect in adverse manner sadly as Saad graphs shows about the no of deaths.
Mike said: Those who still believe
@Sue
The Afghans destroyed their own country through multiple militias, the Taliban being one of them.
Back to topic, this retaliatory attack is to be expected as this pattern has been seen for the last 3 years, whenever action is taken against Taliban chapters, they strike back using suicide bombers in Pakistani cities. We must have resolve and continue the campaign against terrorism.
Pakistan Paindabad.