Following 2 photos are the scenes of 2 more cowardly attacks by the enemies of Pakistan in my Lahore and my Peshawar. Very sad and our prayers go to the innocents who got martyred. If anything, these cowardly acts are going to make our resolve stronger against the terrorists. Dawn coverage here and here.
Photo Credits: Dawn and M. Ramzan
Dear Readers,
While All Things Pakistan has remained alive and online, it has been dormant since June 11, 2011 - when, on the blog's 5th anniversary, we decided that it was time to move on. We have been heartened by your messages and the fact that a steady traffic has continued to enjoy the archived content on ATP. While the blog itself will remain dormant, we are now beginning to add occasional (but infrequent) new material by the original authors of the blog, mostly to archive what they may now publish elsewhere. We will also be updating older posts to make sure that new readers who stumble onto this site still find it useful.
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Aamir Ali,
It is funny how you call the claims of CIA/Mossad involvement as conspiracy theories while Indian involvement to you is a given! Despite the fact that there has not been a shred of evidence connecting India to the TTP or any of the other Tanzeems targeting Pakistan now. I do not believe the CIA would strengthen the very monster it wishes to defeat, but just for the sake of argument, at least it had links to varying degrees with jihadi organizations over the years, before 2001. India, on the other hand, has been facing the brunt of jihadi terrorism long before the world realized its dangers. To suggest that somehow India can gain entry into and start controlling such organizations is really beyond absurd, leave aside the fact that it makes no sense whatsoever to aid the very organizations which aim to destroy you eventually.
I guess the sense of denial runs deep. It is partly borne out of guilt as well – after having supported terrorists that targeted others for decades (despite outwardly denying it), it seems natural for many Pakistanis to think that others would do the same against them.
As for Indians seeming to gloat – it is not gloating over the deaths of innocents. Nobody can condone that. I have personally seen the horrors of terrorism – during the 1993 serial blasts in Bombay, I spent a horrifying few hours trying to reach my sister, who worked at the time in a building adjacent to the Bombay Stock Exchange (one of the main targets). On that day, my parents were not in the city either and I was in college in a different city. All sorts of thoughts came into mind because of my inability to reach her on the telephone, either at work or at home. Our neighbor’s son (incidentally a Muslim himself) spent two hours trapped under the dead body of a person who he had been talking to a second before the blast at the Air India building. A fragment of the roof fell on the poor lady and she took the brunt of the the impact, saving him in the process. So I know what terror is like at a personal level and wouldn’t wish that for anybody at all.
However, it should be understood that India has been targeted by Pakistan-sponsored terrorism for about 30 years now. No country has lost more people to terrorist incidents than India. For a couple of decades, when we were pointing to the dangers of these outfits, the world chose to look bemusedly. Pakistan chose to continue supporting them and building up their capabilities wholeheartedly. Up until 2001, these organizations made no secret of their activities and got full support from not just the establishment, but from ordinary people, particularly the educated elite. As long as these organizations were killing Indians, they were willing to donate money to them, give their fighters a status of heroes and look the other way when they did horrible things or outrightly deny that they could do so. Even after 2001, no serious effort has been made to rein these organizations in and some of them continue to be supported by the Pakistani establishment and nurtured as strategic assets. So now that some of them have turned their guns on Pakistan, there is a feeling that this is a case of chickens coming home to roost.
I doubt that there are Indians, other than some loonies, who actually want innocent Pakistani civilians to get killed or get hurt. But there is an overwhelming feeling that at least now, Pakistan should cut its support to ALL terrorist organizations. It does not seem that this is happening even now. See for instance the chargesheet filed against those accused of masterminding the Mumbai attacks of 2008 (it has been accessed by the BBC). It is a joke and seems designed to ensure that the court acquits them or gives them a light sentence at the most (the most serious charge against Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi for instance is of causing trade between India and Pakistan to be disrupted! No mention of a criminal conspiracy to kill and injure hundreds of people in Mumbai). Pakistan army officers (some of them unnamed) are being discovered as being involved in these attacks (see the FBI chargesheet against David Headley and Tahawwur Rana for instance). In these circumstances, if some Indians keep repeating the facts of Pakistan’s continued support of some terrorist organizations, it is not unnatural or unjustified.
@Indian
The comment you have made has been made dozens of times before by other Indians on other posts. I have seen the exact same comment on other boards/websites by Indians as well so please come up with something new.
Additionally these terrorists (tehreek-e-Taliban) are self-created outfits which have never been involved in India, and are being supported by Indian intelligence. That’s the truth.
@Psychosomo
Pakistan is a diverse society, you have people who are rational and those who are emotional, though most Pakistanis fall in the emotional category. The amount of violence and disorder in Pakistan has reached such levels that some people are seeking comfort in conspiracy theory, denial and nonsense, which is why you find all these comments about Blackwater, CIA, Mossad, New World Order, Great Game, shadowy agencies etc. Such people are never able to explain their conspiracy theories when confronted so you should not worry too much.
Of course there also exist Taliban-lovers who also encourage conspiracy theories and lies about CIA/Mossad etc in order to hide the crimes and reality of Taliban and crazy mullah. Overall situation is pretty grim.
My sympathies to the sane and sensible among Pakistanis here.
However, I must say that this is nothing but chickens coming home to roost. Propagating hate and terror in the neighborhood is finally coming back to bite your country. You have no one else to blame but yourselves for sitting quietly or applauding while these goons were killing and persecuting people in Afghanistan and India. And now they’ve come after you. I am saying this plainly not to gloat – who can gloat over senseless killing? – but because there are still commenters here who refuse to accept the truth.
mere Khuda mujhe itna to motabar kar de
main jis makan mein rahta hun us ko ghar kar de
ye roshni k taqqub mein bhagta hua din
jo thak gaya hai to ab is ko mukhtasar kar de
main zindagi ki dua mangne laga hun bahut
jo ho sake to duaon ko beasar kar de
sitara-e-sahri dubne ko aya hai
zara koi mere suraj ko ba-khabar kar de
qabila war kamanein karakne wali hain
mere lahu ki gawahi mujhe nadar kar de
meri zamin mera akhiri hawala hai
so main rahun na rahun us ko barawar kar de
main apne khwab se kat kar jiyun to mere Khuda
ujar de meri mitti ko dar-ba-dar kar de
@Psycosmo
“Are the people who say these things trying to cover or the Taliban? Or are they simply unable to believe that fellow Pakistanis could do such things? Or do they think there really is evidence that the CIA/Mossad are the actual perpetrators of these bombings? Is it some sort of propaganda conspiracy or what?”
I think the vast majority of Pakistanis are so fatigued, depressed, and sick of the situation that at this point they just want the attacks to stop, even if it comes at the cost of negotiating with these groups (which incidentally the U.S. is attempting as well).
I also believe that the majority of Pakistanis agree on the fact that these attacks are in fact being carried out by people belonging to the general umbrella of the Taliban in the tribal areas and in Afghanistan, or their extremist sympathizers inside Pakistan.
However, some Pakistanis do seem to be confused about who is actually supporting these groups, and that is where, unfortunately, the conspiracy theories come flying in. For most people, it’s hard to imagine why they would be attacked by Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Think about it from the perspective of a middle-class person; your politicians have always lied to you, your military has produced a series of power-hungry dictators, your economy is controlled by criminals, your law enforcement personnel are corrupt, your courts are occupied by puppets, etc etc. You have no trust in any institution, and perhaps rightfully so, since every institution has taken less time to abuse it than the previous one.
Add to that the fact that Pakistan has become the favorite whipping-boy of the world media. Reports on attacks by the Taliban move quickly from number of people killed to, as your comment indicates, the Pakistani public’s alleged denial/empathy, to pundits and politicians harping ‘must do more.’ Why is it that the people who have suffered the most at the hands of terrorists are being portrayed as having complicity? Where are the candle-light vigils, anniversaries, and HBO-documentaries on the innocent people being killed in universities, hotels, etc?
Unfortunately, even though the current administration has been democratically elected, it has zero credibility, mainly due to one man, Asif Zardari, whose two biggest problems are that he is perceived as the most corrupt politician in Pakistani history, and as a stooge of the West. Ironically, I think we would have better success against the Taliban if we actually had leadership that were not perceived to be overly pro-Western.
If Pakistan is to rise above this tragic situation, we have to forge a strong, national consensus across all institutions against these terrorist groups.