Reuters Image: Lahore Blast
You know it’s going to be a bad day when you wake up to news of bomb blasts in two of Pakistan’s main cities. At least 13 people were killed and more than 50 were injured (Geo News put the number higher, at 70) when a suicide bomber targeted a Shiite procession near Bhatti gate in central Lahore today. Many of the injured, noted the Guardian, were from Pakistan’s security forces. BBC News cited Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, who said he expected the death toll to rise.
A senior police official told reporters, “It definitely appears to be a suicide attack…A young boy tried to rush in and throw a bag into the crowd. When he was stopped, he blew himself up.” Lahore police chief Aslam Tarin further affirmed that the bomber was just thirteen years old, who detonated his explosives when police tried to check him “at a cordon near the procession.”
The processions today, noted Dawn, marked “Chehlum or Arba’in, the end of a 40-day religious mourning period for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh), who was killed during a battle in A.D. 680 in Karbala.” According to the Guardian’s coverage, “…last week the interior ministry warned the Punjab government of a possible car bomb attack during today’s procession, and provided the details of three suspect vehicles.”
According to CNN, a militant group called Fedeyeen-e-Islam claimed responsibility for the Lahore attack, and its spokesman Shakir Ullah Shakir labeled Shiites “enemies of Islam.” The news agency noted, “The group is an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban and Laskhar-e Jangvi…One of the senior leaders of Fedayeen-e Islam is Qari Hussein — widely believed to be the trainer of child suicide bombers for the Pakistani Taliban.”
Not long after the bombing in Lahore, another blast struck Karachi. The BBC cited police officials, who said the bomber had “tried to ram a bus carrying Shia devotees. The attacker targeted a police Jeep instead after it blocked his way.” Two police officers were killed in the attack, and more are reported to be critically injured.
If these blasts show anything, it’s that “the real enemies of Islam” are those who kill innocent civilians, who continue to terrorize the heart of this nation. The target of the blasts in Lahore and Karachi appear, once again, to be an attack on the country’s minorities [see this piece on the targeting of religious minorities], but many policemen also died or were injured in the blasts. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, as well as to the numbers of policemen who risk their lives every day by just going to work.
The Lahore bombing was reportedly perpetrated by yet another child suicide bomber, further illustrating how we need to probe the issues and root causes that lead to the recruitment and brainwashing of hundreds of young boys by militant groups, [see Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy's documentary, Children of the Taliban for more, as well as this piece I wrote for June issue of the CTC Sentinel last year].
CHUP will continue to update this space as more details come in.
Its terrifying that a 14 year old is convinced that his purpose is to serve his religion as a suicide bomber.
Its heartbreaking to imagine the future of our nation when children have been desensitized by the idea of murder, killings and death.
The saddest part Maddy is how common of a trend this is, and how many continue to ignore that fact. Innocent young boys continue to be brainwashed, indoctrinated, and recruited into this mindset, referred by Taliban recruiters as “qurbani ka bakra” – they are no longer seen as children but objectified as sacrifices.
We have protect are selfs the government. Has continue to ignore the religious bigotry! Sunni majority believes there getting Jinnah! By killing your brothers angers me President. PPP is Shi name only what have done to protect us! Nothing Pakistan is Islamic society don’t make me.
Laugh getting tired same excuse trying. To quell indifference so it snows
in the desert! Police are also guilty assisting the Sunni haters ! Salaam!
[...] “Bomb Blasts Strike Lahore & Karachi” and related posts (changinguppakistan.wordpress.com) [...]
From Kamila Shamsie’s colum in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/07/liberal-pakistan-triumph-extremism-salmaan-taseer?CMP=twt_gu
For those who insist that Pakistan’s religious right problem started with the rule of General Zia in 1977, look at the warning within the Munir-Kayani report of 1954: “Provided you can persuade the masses to believe that something they are asked to do is religiously right or enjoined by religion, you can set them to any course of action, regardless of all considerations of discipline, loyalty, decency, morality or civic sense.”
That should have been a wake-up call; it wasn’t. Two decades later, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who had campaigned on a secular socialist platform, declared the Ahmadiyyas non-Muslim, in an awful attempt to outflank the religious right. Like many other politicians before and since, he thought he could use Islamic rhetoric to his advantage, without too much concern about fallout. And so we are left with the haunting final words of the report: “But if democracy means the subordination of law and order to political ends – then Allah knoweth best and we end the report.”
Is it really down to the Taliban? What hypocrisy! And how did the Taliban come into being, pray? They are essentially the product of the obscene injustice that has spread through Pakistani society like a cancer, and the interference in Pakistan’s affairs of its enemy-disguised-as-friend, the USA. I could go on ad infinitum but I’ll make do with extracts from comments I have made elsewhere:
“In Pakistan today a system of apartheid operates, two parallel worlds of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. The former, living in their ivory towers away from ordinary Pakistanis, have arrogated to themselves such fancy titles as “liberal” and “humanist” whereas the ugly reality is that these people are the worst sort of oppressors who are mercilessly fleecing the poorest of Pakistanis and denying them equal opportunities in life by erecting a thick wall of English which ordinary people cannot penetrate. Behind that sky-high wall of English these shameless followers of the worst aspects of American culture wallow in obscene luxury.”
“The Pakistani society is basically a relic of the colonial system that the British left behind, with one important difference: the white faces have been replaced by darker faces lording over the unfortunate “natives”. The “sahibs” speak in English and they have cleverly imposed that foreign language on the country, which 95% of the population does not understand. Thus, ordinary people are denied access to better jobs and influential posts.”
“Since the educated “liberals” have isolated themselves from the rest of the population, and they express themselves primarily in English which the vast majority of Pakistanis does not understand, they must shoulder a lot of the blame for whatever views the poor, disenfranchised Pakistanis hold. The fake liberals and humanists need to step down from their ivory towers and speak to people in Urdu or in the language of the region they belong to. A babble of voices in English may win the hypocritical Pakistanis a pat or two on the back from their foreign friends but it is entirely useless in raising the awareness of ordinary Pakistanis.”
You will not get anywhere with this line of analysis, other than putting Pak further down the hole, until you acknowledge the horrible traits of the ordinary Pakistani. You cannot put all the blame on the tiny number of liberals. We Pakistanis have reached a terrible place–we need to rebuild ourselves and stop telling ourselves we are some kind of victims–of India, USA, whatever. The fault lies in us. We can rebuild, but it starts with stopping the lies.
Start educating people–we should not have illiterates in the 21st century–illiteracy should be viewed as a humiliation, stop child labor, stop abusing women. These are among the obvious steps that it takes to move from our current backward status to something like Mexico. Yeah, Mexico, that would be cool.
Can we train a loyal security force. To protect the majority,
absolutely reason. Besides religious indifference, I know political. Parties cause many of bombing and say. Externals cause the havoc not accurate, I support foreign. Investments
sharing commerce but always problems internal security. Pakistan needs to address this sounds general. On my response tired of saying, were did this come from? Fault the
national security not performing well. No only concern for majority during elections. Central Asia,Northern African and
Turkey eager to assist. Pakistan in mining and transportation
specific building. Highways and roadways only problem bandits whom harass. And Zardari the savior of Pakistan done
nothing or does care? It angers me other nations are making
economic. Progress Pakistan lingers in the cracks of Doubt!