AP: Soldiers cordon off the area around the mosque
Attackers stormed a mosque in Rawalpindi during Friday prayers today, killing at least 36 people, including 17 children, 10 civilians, and 9 army personnel. Of the army personnel killed, six were senior officials, while one was an army general. The NY Times also reported that one of the wounded was Gen. Muhammad Yousaf, a retired senior commander who served as the deputy head of the army under former President Pervez Musharraf. While some reports differed on whether the perpetrators were suicide bombers or gunmen (reporting later that they were both), Dawn cited the official statement by ISPR that said, “Four terrorists carried out the attack; grenades were first hurled into the mosque, before two of the terrorists went inside and blew themselves up. The remaining terrorists then opened indiscriminate fire outside the mosque.”
Al Jazeera English correspondent Imran Khan noted the attack was significant because it may have caused the deaths of some “very senior military officers.” He added,
Whoever was responsible for this attack will be saying that this is a coup for them because in previous attacks on security installations what normally happens is its low-level officers that form the brunt of [the attack]. We are hearing two two-star generals have been killed in [Friday's] attack, as well as a brigadier and a major-general. Those are unconfirmed at the moment, but if that’s true, this is the higher echelon of the military. The big question is how they were able to get inside with machine guns and …. penetrate such high security.
The brazenness and ease with which the attackers breached the secure area has raised many red flags. A witness told the NY Times, “Only military officers and formal officers who have screened by the intelligence services were supposedly allowed in the mosque.” Recent attacks on Pakistan’s major security apparatuses [including the Army's General HQ in Rawalpindi and the FIA building in Lahore] have garnered similar suspicion – are these attacks merely the result of security lapses or could they also be “inside jobs“?
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Rawalpindi attack today, ISPR spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas once again said it was “a case of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters reacting to the army offensive against them.” He added, “We have yet to establish who the attackers are, but apparently on the face of it they belong to the same organization against whom the army is operating in the area of South Waziristan.” While these militants “are on the run,” Abbas asserted, “they have their agents in the cities and the towns, so … they will conduct these acts.”
In my opinion, it is problematic to constantly point to a faraway enemy every time an attack is perpetrated in Pakistan’s main cities. The oft-branded “Taliban” is not a cohesive or localized organization, but a loose network of militant groups, each with varying agendas and objectives, but able to share information and collaborate on attacks. Therefore, the attack on the Rawalpindi mosque may have indirectly involved the “Taliban” the military is fighting in South Waziristan, but it may have been directly carried out by Punjab-based militant groups, “who were once sponsored by the state but have in recent years turned their attention toward fighting Pakistan’s security forces,” noted the Christian Science Monitor, [see related CHUP post]. The news agency added, “Analysts believe that groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad are deepening their links with the Pakistani Taliban…and that most attacks that occur in the populous eastern province of Punjab are at least partly their work.” To my knowledge, the Pakistani government has not developed an adequate strategy of tackling this militant nexus, an approach that should operate in tandem to the military offensive in South Waziristan.
The fact that militants could commit such a brazen attack, killing children and military officials during Friday prayers, is an immense tragedy. Instead of just condemning these attacks, however, the government should be doing more. In memory of the many killed today and the numbers who have been killed in recent attacks, I say – less talk, more action. Please.
Dignity is the natural right (haqq tabi’ah) of each and every human being. Islam safeguards it and has made it a principle of government, and a basis for social interaction. It is not permitted to violate the dignity of anyone, or make lawful their blood or their honour – whether they be good or bad, Muslim or non-Muslim.
- From a hadith I came across recently.
Usually TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) say that they never carry out attacks on mosques and women. But then they are hardcore criminals so can we trust their claims. Never.
I believe somewhere Al-Qaeda, TTP, and even Punjabi Tehrik Taliban along with other militant outfits have been linked. Their sole aim (apparently) is that Pakistan should withdraw US support. That seems a dream now so this means we’d be seeing many more such attacks in future (unfortunately).
The involvement of foreign hand claim sounds cliche but then people in tribal areas have been hired (by foreign elements) to fire rockets on Peshawar etc. (That is just a small example).
I always believe such outfits can never act without financial support from foreign elements as well as without help from inside.
Today was one tragic day for Pakistan indeed!
Here’s an interesting quote from Rifaat Hussain from Quaid-e-Azam about the Jaish-e-Muhammad:
“The sanctity of a mosque doesn’t matter much to Jaish-e-Mohammad [a Punjab-based militant group], given their history of sectarian violence.”
Am not sure how relevant that is, esp. since, from my reading the Jaish-e-Muhammad and the Sipah-e-Sahba are two Sunni sectarian groups. I’d actually be interested in someone speaking to the evolution of these sectarian groups, and whether sectarianism still plays an important role in this time in their activities, or whether, due to their loose alliance with TTP, their solely focused against the state.
Ayesha,
to suggest India’s hand when you say foreign hand is foolish and these groups have operated in Pakistan even before 9/11 took place. Example: Jaish-e-Mohammad,Sipah-e-Sahiba,etc. They were involved in sectarian violence and bomb blasts in the 1990′s also. Was India supporting them even then?
These attacks are done by people from inside as they have breached heavy security! So a inside hand rather than a outside hand must be suspected.
Pakistan is bleeding, innocent people are dying and the government is busy doing nothing. They just care about sticking to power. Why dont they do something about it? They have created a monster and it’s not going to be easy controlling it.
WTF…..what else do you expect govt to do. As far as I can see GoP is doing the best they can within the means and resources they have available.
What do u mean, “what else do you expect the govt to do”? The government by way of being voted in by the people are supposed to be providing security for its citizens. Currently it is not. Condemnations are all well and good, but for these MAJOR security lapses to occur on a regular basis, to the point where universities are being bombed, mosques, the Army General HQ – someone needs to be held bloody accountable.
“government is busy doing nothing.”
“Currently it is not.”
As a citizen you have every right to say “do more” or better yet propose something which govt should be doing or perhaps point out something they should not be doing. But saying that they are not doing ANYTHING is just plain wrong.
Government should bomb all Madarsas if it can’t reform the syllabus of hatred..
Excellent compilation of events and analysis…
Today was a sad day.
how did they get in .. this is still a big question .. where was the police .. the mlilitary .. this is just stupid … ISI knows exactly where everyone is .. why they dont go and put them behind bars is still a big question .. either its a big game against the army and people of Pakistan or our intelligence just sux
kalsoom, i have been looking through all the news websites today and should have just come straight to your site for a comprehensive, synthesises analysis. it’s really well-written and informative- i know that sounds cliche, but honestly, i mean it- was dying to find for more information and found it here. thanks so much.
Thank YOU for reading
S. Harpasand,
It’s not the government isn’t doing anything – they are releasing condemnations, but that is not enough. Eventually those statements sound hollow after the 15th attack has occurred and people are still dying. And my solution is formulating a strategy that works in tandem with the military’s offensive in South Waziristan – going after the Punjabi militant nexus as well as the TTP nexus. I take major issue with boxing in the enemy by saying it’s only in the north and there are “agents” operating in the south – there are obviously loose alliances at work here, many of whom were created by the state to be proxies against India. Now, maybe the government/state has enacted a strategy to target these groups, but I have not yet heard of any.
kalsoom:
chicken come home to roost!
the terrorists have learned their lesson well…(in another era their ISI paymasters trained them to do exactly this in occupied Kashmir…to relieve the pressure of the Indian Army…open other ‘front’ away from the scene!)
to ease the fauji pressure in waziristan they are indulging in this murder spree…targeting women, children and namazis
***
right now, sadly, there is no solution in sight to curb this violence
Shayma is right on dot saying no other news item was needed after reading kalsoom’s reporting and analysis on today’s tragic incident – Rawalpindi mosque bombing.
Asad Khan’s one line – Today was a sad day – raise alarms – how many more?
And Temporal – the wise man – has the right conclusion – right now, sadly, there is no solution in sight to curb this violence.
There is solution – but Temporal – as I know him – is rarely wrong – it is out of sight.
Out of sight, out of mind?
The solution is not with the news reporters, news analysts and all who appear on prime time TV talk-shows.
Let’s ponder and pray – we will soon find one. Until then bear with the Chaos Unlimited (Pakistan edition) – our very own but “not so proud” production.
[...] one was an army general. The NY Times also reported that one of […] Read more at: CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan al jazeera, al jazeera english, army general, army personnel, deputy head, imran khan, [...]
According to the BBC, the ‘Taliban’ (no part. group mentioned, though the Mehsud outfit is presumed).
Link:
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8394694.stm?ls)
However, I am doubtful. The sheer sophistication of these attacks suggest to me the involvement of Arab players, probably cells trained by Al-Qaeda, or other Pakistani terrorist groups with more exposure and links to the outside world.
Just a hypothesis, if you disagree don’t eat me alive, folks!
Seeing from India we find that people in Pakistan remain confused about from where to start. There is anguish and pain, obviously when the enemy is obscure and invisible. Who knows such a pain better than India does. But the most satisfactory part of our problem is that there is surely a system and investigative mechanism which comes into action. First and foremost is fixing the responsibility at whichever level.
It is quiet apparent that there is a tendency to keep such affairs out of public domain. Otherwise, the heads would have rolled in cases such as GHQ siege and attack on Naval HQ. There is no public demand to know more about those attacks so as to follow a procedure to prosecute the guilty. The governments are to be pressurized to take action as is done in other democracies. But if the people find total satisfaction in just pointing fingers and leaving it to gods then there is more danger of crippling of whatever system exists there.
Anyway, its none of the business of Indians to poke nose into your affairs because we at this end have to deal accordingly with whatever surprises you spring up before us. But we would have always desired functioning democracies in our neighborhood.
@democratically on twitter
Now I understand what America means by pressurizing us to ‘Do More’. Its late, but still the people can pressurize the government to ‘Do More’ for the them. Nobody can argue against the fact that our democracy is impotent, but the sad part that has come out from all the past carnage is that our military is as impotent as the democratically elected officials.
Those who can’t even guard their own HQ are supposed to guard this country? Secondly, due to ultra-suspicious nature of yesterday’s attack, my not-so-analytic mind cannot rule out the involvement from within the military.
Just wondering, Why don’t they just nuke the SWA?? apparently what the Govt claims is that the nice guys are already displaced and the bad guys are hiding there then nuking them and wiping their filth off this land seems a viable option.
ahhhh, sometimes I just wish I were the superman who could just handpick the terrorists and bring justice to them… *sigh*
“Nobody can argue against the fact that our democracy is impotent”
I being from India take great offense to that. Democracy is as strong as the people who are voting in it. An MP from Bangalore is more responsible and honest than an MP from,say, Bihar because a Bangalorean’s hopes and demands are very strict and he will not tolerate shoddy work. Same applies to the voter in Pakistan. In a a democracy, ultimately people are to blame because WE elect THEM!
I know in Pakistan elections dont come around often,but,its just an FYI. Dont attack democracy. Please.
Kalsoom,
As always, superb post! That said, its truly heartrending to read about children & senior citizens being cruelly snuffed out.
Today’s news is that TTP has claimed ‘credit’ for this horrendous act. You know, what baffles me is these johnnies invoke Islam for their acts & they have quite a few advocates in the civil society. How on earth can they defile the same citadel of Islam, wipe out defenceless people who, at that very moment, were praying to the same Almighty these beasts profess to defend???????
Can’t the votaries of these misbegotten breed of filth pull their collective heads out of the sand?!?! Really, it is pathetic such vermin live among human beings like most of us!!!!!!!!!
It’s very sad indeed!!
And all our government would so is start lamenting against India now. It’s obvious that comes off it’s failure to successfully counter the menace.
And it’s all the obvious that such an attack would’ve been simply impossible without local aid, which reaffirms the involvement of punjabi militant factions now playing the game for their frontier brethren.
A very sad and unfortunate incident.
i am shocked… truely shocked!! its agonizing to go through this… one of my friends got killed in the attack!
I am so sorry to hear that!
Kalsoom is so right in writing this is an inside job.
It’s sad, even for a Christian American halfway around the world, to see it. Muslim killing Muslim, Pakistani killing Pakistani, perhaps even Punjabi killing Punjabi. All three of the Religions of the Book agree that brother killing brother greatly displeases God.
The old Pakistani military establishment may find it convenient to float rumors about Indian and other foreign involvement. Politicians may think that mysterious malicious foreigners can distract the people from chronic failures due to domestic mismanagement and corruption. The truth is that both these excuses have worn thin.
The Pakistani Army can always rally patriotic fervor by starting yet another war with India. The border – the front line in this war – is very long, meaning that almost any concentrated Pakistani attack on one weak point will meet with initial success. Speeches can be made, prayers of thanksgiving said. Then the Indian Army will counterattack. There may be some spectacular tank and artillery duels. The Pakistani Army will fall back, its assets weakened to the point it can no longer defend Islamabad and Rawalpindi. A ceasefire will be declared. The Indian and Pakistani commanders will sign an agreement, shake hands, the Indian general will cut off the shoulder boards of his Pakistani counterpart and then the Indians will go home. The border will stay unchanged despite the war. This will be high drama bought at immense production cost – the lives of Pakistan’s best young men and $Millions in lost treasure.
Listen to uninvited advice from an intrusive American: Pakistan will gain nothing whatsoever from losing another war to India. Excoriate the messenger but heed the message.
All Pakistanis of good will can agree that killing children at prayer is wrong. People who send underlings to kill children at prayer have stepped outside the community of men, ostracizing and condemning themselves.
Pakistanis also understand that an assault on the senior military leadership of the Army is an attack on the country itself. This is civil war.
An enemy that both seeks to destroy Pakistan and violates all standards of human decency in doing so requires the full and undivided attention of Pakistan’s political and military establishments.
India has a name and you can point to it. This enemy is vague, a lose confederation of Al Qaeda, Taliban, and Kashmiri liberation militants without a collective name of its own. It’s hard to fight an enemy you can’t even name. Hard but not impossible.
Counterinsurgency doctrine assures Pakistanis that moral outrage translated into concerted action can defeat this enemy. Nameless groups of bandits are nothing new in history. Thieves and killers have gotten together in the past to prosper from created chaos. These gangs actually number few people. Excluded from safe harbor by the rest of the population, they can be isolated, trapped and eliminated.
Pakistani politicians are no different from the breed in every other country. They love to preen and bicker more than any flock of crows. If they heard the National Assembly was feared to fall to the Taliban at 4pm, they would schedule a last photo op at 3pm. The politicians’ carrot and stick are bribes and expulsion from power. Kalsoom’s article, along with some other excellent opinion pieces, may be leading Pakistan’s politicians to the realization that they will be removed from office if they fail to eliminate the militancy and restore order to the nation. It may even be dawning on a few of the Ministers that the militants themselves envision a lethal way to remove them from from power.
Pakistan is at its crossroads. It is a nation slipping into civil war, at risk of devolution and disintegration. Pakistan also possesses intellectuals – like Kalsoom Lakhani – who have all the potential in the world to become world leaders. Pakistan’s future is literally at its nexus. The country can dissolve into four or five inconsequential micro-states whose primarily role will be to absorb global humanitarian aid budgets. Pakistan can also win its civil war and evolve into the dominant Muslim power in the world, leading the Islamic nations in every world forum.
@Timothy Thompson,
Good points but India-Pak war is out of the question now.
Militants getting in a place with high security sounds like a inside job. I hope my country doesn’t get the blame for this,for Pakistan’s sake. Pakistan Army blames us to divert the attention from their failures. Pakistan govt blames us to cover up their inability to stop this violence. But, blaming India without evidence doesn’t do any harm to India and will only expose Pakistan’s paranoia. Besides, it goes against logic that India would support a terror organization that has warned India would be next after Pakistan.
Its been obvious from the start a majority of these bombings are inside jobs. The question for me is, who’s the insider? Has ISI gone rogue? Are military beards calling the shots? What kind of lunatic fights an Islamic “jihad” inside a regular mosque? No one can justify that, not even Pakistani extremist groups.
The operations bare many resemblances to attacks on Israelis, and other pro-Arab terror activities. I believe it would be safe to assume that in this case two that while there is a local element that acted as the gateway for the bombings, more likely than not, this attack was perpetrated by non-Pakistanis, or Pakistanis with Arab-terror training.
I come to this conclusion given the sheer sophistication and brutality of the attack: this isn’t your typical Punjabi, even one driven to extremism because of a bad Quran teacher in a madrassah somwhere outside Multan. This attack in many ways bears similarities to how Muslim Brotherhood supporters assasinated Anwar Sadat: throw a few grenades, then open fire, then suicide–an Arab formula we’ve seen again and again in attacks on Israelis, the attack on the USS Cole, etc.
Thank god. I thought you were going to blame India. My anger has settled.
@Anoop: It would be moronic of me to blame India. India has no interest in destabilizing its mercurial neighbor. Typically, Pakistani nationalists blame others for their country’s failings due to national psychoses.
May Be it is another struggle to divert the attentions from the allegations against the current govt, may be it is govt made plan in the name of insurgents. Any good work.
Under what moral authority can we expect the government to steal our money in the form of taxes and inflation to provide us with dubious involuntary security? Providing security is not a moral function of government. Each individual is responsible for their own security.
Stop turning to the government for handouts. Security is a service, it’s not a right. You can never have the moral RIGHT to someone else’s services.
To me, the pattern of violence suggests that all these extremists are now going for the jugular which is an implosion of the Pakistani state. With the intensifying wave of bombings, they are counting on confused and mislead Pakistanis to cave-in as the population feels helpless in the face of a suicide bombing assault. The terrorists ambitions don’t seem unrealistic because large swathes of public opinion, and more importantly powerful sections of the establishment actually are not too bothered with the aims of these loonies. Such is the extent of extremist brainwishing. Worse, they don’t care if it brings on Armageddon. They just look the other way.
After the disgusting carnage of Parade Lane mosque, I am hearing how members of our military leadership are recoiling at the violence and in private are pausing for thought. Instead of pausing, they should be focussing on a cohesive strategy to rally the ordinary man behind their efforts against these elements.
This is the hour when more rational Pakistanis in this country must rally the nation to stay the course. Extremism and terrorism can be defeated by exposing the fallacy of it’s aims and methods. Where is the public campaign? We must voice our support for efforts being made to defeat terrorism at every turn. Suicide bombers can be defeated – let’s not give up hope, the whole world is with us.
As a Pakistani, I demand that all arrested terrorists must be hanged publicly. No mercy for those who are killing our women and children. Let us start by hanging Sarabjeet Singh. All Pakistanis are requested to unite for this demand….HANG EM HIGH.
Sarabjeet Singh is a innocent who crossed over accidentally. Authorities said he was,i think, Manjit Singh. The case is he is Sarabjit Singh and NOT manjit Singh. Why do you want to kill an innocent? Why did he come up anyway? Is that an indirect way of saying India is involved and your way of hurting India?
Aamir, as a Pakistani, you must know that these same terrorists have been used by your establishment to spread terrorism and tyranny to Afghanistan and India. For decades, these same religious fanatics have done to Afghanistan and India what they’re doing to you now.
Experience is the best teacher. Now that Pakistan’s own monsters have turned on it, it will now feel how Afghans felt when their schools were blown up and their teachers were beheaded by CIA and ISI backed “Muhahideen”.
As for these operations, they’re a farce. Gilani said two days ago that the SWA operation is over. Army figures say 600~ militants have been killed. What happened to the remaining 9,400? No one in the media has asked this question as the entire independent media is riding the establishment bandwagon.
@Anoop,
I think you need to water down the injured indignation part. Scoring brownie points or getting into the ‘I told you so’ mode isn’t really in good taste. Hamza has been quite gracious in responding to your uncalled for comment.
If you surf through various Pakistani blogs & news outlets, you will see an increasing number of Pakistanis who are coming to terms with the fact that they have been lied to & misled by their leaders & establishment. Yes, there are lots who still view India as enemy numero uno but when no less a person than the inimitable Rehman Malik still parrots the India behind Taliban line, why be surprised! Further, you, Aamir & I are in no position to be sure if Sarabjit Singh is guilty or not…… Aamir ‘cos it wouldn’t be the first time the establishment has lied & we ‘cos no Govt will ever admit to existance of spies. And don’t forget the case of Kashmir Singh…after claiming innocence all the time, on Indian soil, he told the press he was indeed a spy. Imagine the mortification of the Pakistani Minister Burney (I think) who fought for his release.
@ Tilsim,
It is unnerving to hear that the military brass is pausing ‘cos that’ll spell doom. The rank & file are by & large simple minded, impressionable men like in any army who look up to the officers for morale boosting but if the officers themselves are shaken, God help them! But,think about this. The officers enlisted prepared to lay down their lives in combat & for their country, but did the recruitement advt or the indoctrination officer spell out that they should be prepared to sacrifice their families’ lives, too?!?!?! Can you even comprehend the depth of their dilemma? Its one thing to ask the soldier to die in the line of duty but his wife, kids, parents…………….
Sashi,
I dont want to appear to say ‘I told you so’. You are right about Kashmir Singh and I knew it would come up. But, the fact that you are calling him Sarabjit Singh means that he is not Majit Singh. He even has a family back home with a kid who hasn’t seen him in ages. Pakistani establishment alleges he is not Sarabjit but Manjit. But, there is overwhelming evidence to counter that. Pakistan if it takes positive action on Sarabjit it would be a huge CBM on your part. I want our 2 countries to talk but that is not at discussion here. Anyway, hope Sarabjit sees his son once before he dies or gets the sentence passed on him.
I have seen many Pakistanis talking for and against India’s hand in Pakistani forums. But, let me tell you what I can do. If it ever is proven India is behind it, the govt of Manmohan Singh is going to lose my vote and possibly many people like me who believe we should not interfere in other people’s business.
I am confident that we are not involved. Hope your govt produces the proofs that it claims it has. Lets stop this game. That Rehman Malik gets on my nerve whenever he talks about ‘foreign hand’.
@Sashi
I agree, the war is in our homes now and our military leadership is feeling it in the sacrifice of it’s loved ones. I did nt mean to dismiss their pain. I am sorry if it came across that way. The rank and file, in particular, is giving great sacrifices. Not that our self serving media is prepared to lionise their valour appropriately or sufficiently. However, I am just pointing out that this is not the time for leaders to lose site of the goal. The daily tragedies need to be turned into a rallying cry against these extremists who are proving an existential threat to not only a decent society but the very notion of Islam itself. Terrorism will not be defeated unless the nation collectively and decisively acts against it. It’s incredible and soul destroying to see that decades of state sponsored brainwashing has totally numbed many people’s sense of outrage at extremism. They are having difficulty in looking at evil in the eye and are falling pathetically for conspiracy theories. Blaming America, India, Israel is not going to make the Jihadis and their single minded pursuit of their facist agenda disappear. The leadership needs to do a much better job at telling the nation where to find it’s enemies, who are right amongst us and them. The war won’t be without pain because the mutated limb is strong with an active blood supply attached to the main body.
@ Anoop,
“Hope your Govt provides the proof it claims it has.” I got news for you, mate! Your Govt & mine are the same. I’m just weary of some Indians needling Pakistanis on the blogs needlessly.
I do agree with you on the asinine claims of Rehman Malik but so do a host of Pakistani bloggers like Kalsoom & Yawar. You only have to scroll thru the comments of Hamza, Tilsim & most of the others to realise that Malik’s claims don’t find traction with them, too. Afghanistan & Pakistan are two countries under relentless international spotlight, it would be impossible for any country, let alone India, to meddle around without being caught out. Malik & Gilani are just using the India card to cover up their ineptitude & complete lack of control on governance. Even a perceived ‘hawk’ like Mian Nawaz Sharif said yesterday “IF India is involved…” clearly signalling scepticism.
@ Tilsim,
Apologies if I came through as questioning your view on the Soldiers’ woes. I was just voicing out loud the mindboggling mental trauma beseiging them realising that fighting this existential threat is putting their families’ on the terrorists’ radar. I fully agree with your views, though, options have run out.
@Sashi,
Ya I too read what Nawaz Sharif said. To be honest I was surprised by the tone and the “IF” part too! Maybe this is for the better. I too have seen sane,rational voices in blogs but makes me wonder if this is the minority in Pakistan. Clearly, Malik has a few followers to be still working in a public post.
But, its irritating to hear multiple voices from within the govt of Pakistan. Asif Ali Zardari speaks in a different way than ,say, Rehman Malik. Even Gilani is hawk sometimes. Why is there so much confusion on the Civilian side itself? Forget about the military. They say one thing but mean another. Atleast the Civvies should come together to make sure there are not more than 2 centers of Power in Pakistan.