Adil Najam

The details of exactly what happened here are still sketchy. Except that this terrorist attack on the Emergency Ward of Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital was clearly related to the brutal attack of Ahmadis in Lahore earlier this week.

The basic facts of what we do know about this brutal terrorist attack are horrendous enough: four terrorists came in disguised as policemen and took control of the Emergency section of Jinnah Hospital where a number of people who had been injured in the earlier attack on Ahmadis in Lahore were admitted, as was one of the suspects of that attack (Muaz); the ensuing gun battle with the police was not pretty and left twelve people dead, including four policemen; eventually the terrorists were able to flee in safety.

Adil Najam

The world is abuzz in anguish against Israel’s military action against the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ of aid ships carrying relief goods for embargoed Gaza. Condemnations are pouring in for this military action in international waters. The irony in the tragedy is not lost on the world – in 1947, the ship Exodus 1947 carrying Jewish immigrants wanting to get to Jerusalem had similarly been stopped by the British authorities and the dramatic struggle that resulted had been influential in changing world opinion towards the creation of the state of Israel.

The world politics implications of the incident aside, the immediate concern of many is about the safety of nationals from nearly 40 countries, including many journalists, who were in this relief goods flotilla. These include three Pakistanis – senior journalist and well known TV anchor Talat Hussain of Aaj TV, his cameraman Raza Mahmood Agha, and a Pakistani NGO activist Nadeem Ahmed.

Adil Najam

The news is finally in. As expected, the Lahore High Court has lifted the ban it had earlier imposed on the social networking site, Facebook.

So, what is the lesson in all of this? Who gained what in this entire episode? And who lost what?