Lahore attack, my 2 cents

Its the morning of the 28th of May, Thursday as I sit at work in Karachi checking my mails, answering them as fast as I can because of the fear of KESC quitting once again leaving me stranded without data or work.  At this precise moment my telephone, cell phone and twitter go berserk at the same time. On one end is my office in Lahore calling to delay all shipments to them because they just heard an extremely loud explosion, on the Bberry twitter goes into overdrive as message after message screams the same thing “Lahore has been attacked again”

I turn on the Tv to horrific scenes in the civil lines area of Lahore, a middle class neighborhood where offices of the Capital city police and Rescue 15 stand next to the ISI offices as well as quarters of government officials. Terrorists had managed to get a suzuki pickup(truck) laden with 100 kgs of explosives there and blew it up with the effect of not only leveling the 15 building, but blowing away as many as 58 cars and window panes and glass fronts of shops more than a quarter of a mile down the road.

My immediate response was to call up people I knew in Lahore to make sure they were safe, followed by the realization that although the channels showed 23 dead the reality was far grislier as people on the ground told me. Even now the government estimates about 25 deaths while eye witnesses claim there were at least 200 people inside the 15 building when it went down. How many perished is anyones guess but a day after this attack many other details have come out which help me make the following analysis.

First of all, although officials may tell us that this attack was well planned and all, it was not. Infact the attackers did not even make it with their explosive laden convoy of death to the target which were the ISI offices adjacent to the 15 building. Why did they not do so? Simply because as they started firing at people indiscriminately and hurled hand grenades around they were attacked back, not just from the rooftop of the neighboring 15 building but from across the street as well thus making them halt in place and detonate their payload before they reached the target.

Secondly this attack’s responsibility was claimed for by the Tehrik E Taliban Punjab wing, which basically comprises of none other than the Lashkare Jhangwi and other  fine folks coming under the umbrella of the TTP which is under serious threat in Swat. This was not a tit for tat attack by the TTP but an act of desperation from the murderers in mingora to bring the war to the streets of our cities because they are losing the real battle in Swat. Lets face it when the tide of public opinion in Pakistan swings against something like it has against the militants, it is very hard to swing it back and that is precisely what these militants are trying to do as they are running scared of the brave jawans of our army, who need I remind my readers are laying down their lives for our security.

Thirdly what sickened me the most yesterday and even today are the various statements coming from our political parties. They start out with condemning the attacks and then for the umpteenth time try to blame the events of this horrible attack on some sort of unseen hand. A few channels even went as far as pointing out that indeed “India” seems to be involved. This is exactly the kind of half arsed cockamamie shit that has gotten us into this dilemma in the first place. Who are our leaders kidding? Do they think we walk around with bandages on our eyes that we cannot even see that the enemy striking at us again and again is from within? What makes the blood boil even more is some of our leaders who still refuse to condemn the Pakistani militants and instead prefer to sit on the fence scoring brownie points and blaming our government for towing America’s line. Please if not for the love of your own countrymen then for the sake of your own bloody skin stop spreading this version of lies and propaganda, this is not America’s war those bastards targeting our cities are not Americans and the TTP is not flying a combined version of the India/Israeili/American flag, yes “they” are getting weapons from somewhere else but it is our Pakistani militants who are firing them on our children.

The long and the short of it is that the militants are indeed present among us and whilst we are on the verge of winning a decisive victory in Swat, it will take a long time to root this threat out. That is unless we tell our leaders to go to hell and combine as one nation against this evil from within.

I would like to think and pray that those who died yesterday will find peace and those they left behind the strength to go on. I would also love to pray that the attackers in Lahore wake up to a fiery eternal life in front of the maker in whose name they kill so indiscriminately!!

Other places to read for excellent analysis of this incident which cannot be found in our morally corrupt newspapers are Chup and Mosharraf Zaidi’s blog.