Pakistan: A nation in turmoil (Pictures)

[Forrest Griffin]

Dozens of vehicles carrying supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan, were attacked and burned by suspected Taliban gunmen in a field in Sangjani, located on the outskirts of Islamabad early morning June 9. The ensuing fire destroyed about 50 tankers and containers, killing at least six.


A demonstrator in Peshawar shouts slogans during a protest against Israel, after its military moved against a relief aid flotilla on its way to the Gaza Strip. Pakistan condemned the Israeli commando attack on the aid ships, describing the killings of the activists as "brutal and inhuman."


Members of the Ahmadi Muslim community hold the names of victims of a double mosque bombing by militants in Lahore as they stand over their graves in Chenab Nagar, Punjab's Chiniot District Saturday. Chenab Nagar, also known as Rabwah, is the headquarters for the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan.


Volunteers carry a man injured in an attack outside the Garhi Shahu neighborhood mosque in Lahore, Friday. Gunmen attacked worshippers from a minority Muslim sect in two mosques, taking hostages and killing at least 70 people, officials said.

Activists of Islami Jamiat-e-Tulaba, the student wing of the hardline party Jamaat-i-Islami, shout slogans during a protest in Lahore against the published caricatures of Prophet Mohammed on Facebook on May 20.

Security officials survey the site of a suicide bomb attack in Dera Ismail Khan on May 18. A police van was attacked, killing 12 people, including three policemen.

A man works behind a textile machine at a factory in Faisalabad on May 17. Power outages of up to 18 hours a day are threatening the government's credibility at a time when the U.S. is pressing it to step up the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Army soldiers escort Major General Sajjad Ghani, not pictured, as he arrives to inaugurate a water supply plan in the Khawazakhela area of the Swat valley on April 22. Although large parts of Swat, a former tourist destination, have been cleared of militants, most of the Taliban leaders are believed to have gone into hiding in its remote mountain areas and nearby districts.

 

[Forrest Griffin]

Traders at Karachi's Stock Exchange stand outside their booths while observing the market on computer screens, on April 21. Pakistan's short-term money rates fell on Wednesday, but dealers said they were waiting for the result of a treasury bill auction later in the day in which cut-off yields are expected to rise by 5 to 10 basis points.


People carry the coffin of a bombing victim for funeral in Peshawar on April 20. An Islamist politician, whose party lost several members in a suicide attack on April 19, blamed Pakistan's alliance with the U.S. for the violence and urged Islamabad to break ranks in the war on terror.


An official examines a damaged police vehicle after a bomb blast in Peshawar on April 19. At least 24 people, including a child and police officials, were killed in bombings hours apart at a high school and a crowded market. The blast struck soon after protesters rallying against soaring inflation and crippling power shortages had left the market area.

Journalists mourn the death of their colleague in Quetta, on April 16. A suicide bomber attacked a hospital emergency room where Shiites were mourning a slain bank manager, killing eight people including a journalist and two policemen.


A darkened street in Lahore during a power outage on April 14. Pakistan is currently facing a power shortage of almost 5,000 megawatts because it has failed to build new power plants to keep up with the demand for electricity, resulting in prolonged outages every day.

Pakistani chefs prepare traditional dishes at a roadside restaurant in Karachi in the evening on April 11.

Security forces at the site of a bomb attack near the U.S. consulate in Peshawar on April 5. Militants using a car bomb and firing weapons attacked hours after a suicide bomber killed forty-one people in the northwest town of Timargarah, officials said. Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack on the consulate, in which eight people including three militants were killed but no one in the mission was hurt.


Pakistani policemen and supporters of Awami National Party (ANP) walk among bodies of people killed by a suicide bomb attack in Timargarah, the main town in the district of Lower Dir on April 5, where Pakistan waged a major offensive against local Taliban insurgents last year. Police said the bomber tried to get into the ground where the ANP was holding a meeting, but he was stopped and blew himself up, killing 41 people.

 

[Forrest Griffin]

Sahil Saeed, a five-year old British boy who was kidnapped on March 3 from his grandparents home in Jhelum, is reunited with his father, Raja Naqqash, and grandmother Tasnim Bashir at the British High Commission in Islamabad following his release on March 18.

Sunny Hanif is seen working on a car while Shazad Kaleem is reflected in a mirror at the car garage where they work in Islamabad, on March 17.


An injured child cries as he sits next to other victims at the site of suicide bombing in Saidu Sharif, a town in the Swat Valley, March 13. A suicide attacker struck a security checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, killing scores of people and injuring dozens.

Pakistani officials and soldiers visit the site of bombing in Lahore, on March 12. A pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other, killing scores of people, police said.

Police and rescue workers inspect a crater after a suicide bomb blast targeted the Federal Investigation Agency in Lahore on March 8. The attack on the police intelligence unit killed at least eleven people and wounded about sixty during the morning rush hour.

Local residents install a welcome message that reads in Urdu, "Welcome, Long Live Pak Army," after security forces claimed to have taken control of a former stronghold of Taliban militants in the Tangi area of the Bajaur tribal region on March 6.

Soldiers inspect a cave that the Pakistan Army said was built and used by the Pakistani Taliban in Damadola on March 2.

Pakistani soldier Ismail Mirzam, 25, stands guard in a village in the Bajur tribal region on the border with Afghanistan on March 2.

 

[Forrest Griffin]

Pakistani protesters riot after gunmen opened fire on a religious procession marking Mulid an-Nabi, the anniversary of the birth of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. in Faisalabad on Feb. 27.

A scene of devastation after a suicide bombing in Mingora, capital of the troubled Swat valley, on Feb. 22. The blast, aimed at Pakistani security forces, ripped through a busy market killing at least eight people and wounding dozens.


Supporters of a Pakistani religious party Jamaat-e-Islami hold a rally demanding the release of accused al-Qaida associate Aafia Siddiqui, Feb. 21, in Islamabad. Siddiqui, 37, was convicted of two counts of attempted murder.

Alleged Taliban commander Abdullah, who goes by the alias Abu Waqas, gestures while flanked by security officials as he appears at a court in Karachi on Feb. 18. According to police officials, Abdullah was involved in recruiting female suicide bombers.

Pakistani Army soldiers survey a hideout used by Taliban militants, during a military operation in the lawless Bajaur tribal agency near the Afghanistan border, on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

Pakistani Shiite Muslims take part in a rally to condemn Friday's bombing, Sunday, Feb. 7, in Lahore. Dozens of people died and many others were wounded in Karachi on Friday when suspected Sunni militants targeted a bus carrying Shiite worshippers and then attacked the major hospital treating victims of the first bombing.

Hundreds gather around the bodies of bomb victims who were killed in an attack on a bus. Shiite Muslims travelling to a religious procession were bombed during their funeral prayer in Karachi, on Feb. 6.


Men grieve for relatives who were victims of a suicide bombing, outside Jinnah hospital in Karachi, Friday, Feb. 5. A suspected suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 12 Shiites on Friday, officials said, in another blow to government efforts to defeat al Qaeda-backed Taliban insurgents. Hours later, the hospital where the wounded, were being treated was hit by a huge explosion from a similar device.

 

[Forrest Griffin]

Pakistani paramilitary soldiers inspect a damaged bus at the scene of a bomb blast in the southern port city of Karachi, Friday, Feb. 5. At least twelve Shiite Muslim devotees were killed and dozens injured, including women and children, when their bus was hit by a bomb explosion planted on a motercycle.


A resident helps rescue students from the rubble of a bombing near a girls school in Timergara, Pakistan, that also killed at least three students, three U.S. soldiers and one Pakistani soldier on Wednesday, Feb. 3.


A hospital worker carries a boy hurt in a suicide car bombing in Bajaur, Pakistan, on Jan. 30. The blast near a security checkpost on Saturday killed 14 people.

Pakistanis in Karachi on Jan. 23 protest against U.S. drone attacks targeting suspected Taliban and Al-Qaida extremists along the border with Afghanistan.

A Pakistani girl plays with her brother outside their makeshift tent in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad on Jan. 28


A man follows his shot through the fog while playing cricket in a park in Lahore, Pakistan, on Jan. 24.

Onlookers watch firefighters extinguish a burning NATO supply truck outside Peshawar, Pakistan, on Jan. 23. Militants launch frequent attacks on supplies for U.S. and NATO-led forces fighting against Taliban insurgents across the border.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, center, attends a wreath laying ceremony with Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Rawalpindi on Jan. 21. Gates praised the efforts of the Pakistani army, while pressing for further action against militants carrying out cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

 

[Forrest Griffin]

A boy is held as he weeps for a family member, who was injured in a bomb blast, as he waits at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, on Jan. 20. A Pakistani politician was among four people wounded by a bomb that exploded in the key city of Peshawar, the gateway to the Khyber pass and Afghanistan, police said.


Pakistani religious students take their first term examination at Karachi's biggest Islamic seminary, Jamia Binoria, on Jan. 17. Binoria is one of the country's model seminaries which modified its curriculum and added contemporary subjects like computer, mathematics and science.

Pakistani villagers examine the rubble of a state-run dispensary building wrecked by militants in Sultan Khel, an area of the Pakistani Khyber tribal region along the Afghan border, on Jan. 16. Pakistani security forces are battling Taliban fighters and other militant groups in the rugged northwest regions bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistani acid attack survivor, Nusrat Aflal, 25, watches television at the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Jan. 14. The foundation provides medical, psychosocial and legal support to victims of acid attacks to reintegrate them into mainstream society. Acid attacks are rising, with ASF recording 48 cases in 2009, according to the legal coordinator with Pakistan's ASF who says countless more probably go unreported because of social stigma.

Members of a local peace committee take part in a rally to condemn the recent wave of violence, on Jan. 11, in Karachi. Dozens of people have been killed in Pakistan's largest city including three found decapitated over the weekend in a wave of targeted attacks among rival political groups that some say is aimed at destabilizing the country's ruling coalition.

A Pakistani Army soldier passes by a war-ravaged building in Malam Jabba, a region of the Swat valley where the Pakistani Army has been engaged in ongoing operations against Taliban militants, on Jan. 10. Although large parts of Swat, a former tourist destination, have been cleared of the militants, most of the Taliban leaders are believed to have gone into hiding in its remote mountain areas and nearby districts.

A traffic jam is seen on Kojak pass, the only route that connects Chaman, which sits on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan, with Quetta, on Jan. 10. Landlocked Afghanistan receives most of its imports via the Pakistani sea port of Karachi.

Security officials recover ammunition, explosives and Islamic literature amid the rubble of a house that collapsed after a huge explosion allegedly caused by explosives stored in the house, in the southern port city of Karachi, on Jan. 8. "It seems to be a premature explosion that killed six people," Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmad said. Police suspected that those killed were members of a militant group planning terrorist attacks in the country's financial capital.

 

[Forrest Griffin]

Nawaz Sharif, left, Pakistan's former Prime Minister and leader of the main opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), visits the scene of the Dec. 28 bomb attack on a Shiite Muslim mourning procession, in Karachi, on Jan. 6.

An officer of the Airport Security Forces searches a passenger at the international departure lounge of Benazir Bhutto Airport in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Jan. 4. Airline passengers in Pakistan heading to the United States met increased security screening following U.S. requests for stricter checks after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to ignite explosives on a flight to Detroit.

Pakistani boys play table football in Lahore, Pakistan, on Jan. 4.

A Pakistani policeman escorts hand-cuffed men identified as Aman Hassan Yemer, left, Ahmed Abdulah Minni, second left, Waqar Hussain Khan, right, Ramy Zamzam, left rear, and Umar Farooq, right rear, as they leave a police station after their court appearance in Sargodha, Punjab province, on Jan. 4. Police say the five Americans contacted the Taliban over the Internet and plotted attacks inside Pakistan. They arrived under heavy security, with armed policemen and elite forces on rooftops and guarding roads in Sargodha, the town where they were detained a month earlier.

A laborer clears rubble at the site of destroyed shops in Karachi, on Jan. 3. The shops were set ablaze by an angry mob in reaction to the previous week's suicide bomb attack during a procession of Shiite Muslims commemorating Ashoura.


People recover bodies from the debris of collapsed houses at the scene of a massive suicide attack in Lakki Marwat, a town in the militancy-hit North-West Frontier (NWFP) of Pakistan. The bomber detonated his explosives-filled vehicle at the venue of a volleyball match where hundreds of men were gathered, on Jan. 1, killing at least 93 people and injuring more than 100.

Policemen escort two men suspected of looting and burning markets to a district court in Karachi, on Friday, Jan. 1, after a suicide bomb attack during an Ashoura procession on Monday. Pakistan's commercial capital nearly shut down on Friday as religious and political leaders called for a strike to protest against violence after a suicide bomber killed 43 people at the religious procession on Monday. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the huge crowd of Shiite Muslims, and threatened more bloodshed.

 

[Sinnerman108]

InshAllah,

It is this turmoil which will teach us lessons,
it is this blood which will lead us to life,
it is this hunger and poverty which will take us to prosperity,

there isn't a hint of doubt in my mind, we are blessed
For even with this pain, we survive and stand; shaken but not stirred.

InshAllah for a greater deed and to fulfill the service we will be called upon to do

By God's will, we will fulfill the destiny written for us.

My request:
no more comments on this one; lets just leave it like this.
it's a lesson and hopefully an inspiration.

Light a candle, place a flower and promise never to forget.

 

[Forrest Griffin]

2009: A Tumultuous Year

 

[Forrest Griffin]

The year in Pakistan began much as it is ending -- with a military offensive in a restive tribal area. Security forces backed by helicopter gunships, tanks and heavy artillery fought militants in the rugged Khyber tribal area near Jamrud, the gateway to the famed Khyber Pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan, earlier this year. Members of Pakistani Islamist organisation Jamaat-i-Islami (left) came out to protest against the operation on Jan. 3.

Pakistanis cross over bridge after it was damaged by Islamic militants in the Khyber district on Feb. 3. The 100-foot iron bridge, built on a culvert under the British Raj, is a crucial supply line for NATO troops in Afghanistan. The bridge follows the only route through the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan.

Tribesmen offer prayers for the victims of a missile attack in the town of Miranshah on Feb. 15. A suspected U.S. missile strike destroyed a major Taliban training camp in the area, killing dozens, security officials said. While drone attacks have suceeded in killing high-value Taliban and al-Qaida targets, the resulting civilian casualties have stoked anti-American sentiment across Pakistan.

Supporters of cleric Soori Mohammad gather for a peace rally on the streets of Mingora on Feb. 18. Around 15,000 people marched for peace in Pakistan's Swat valley led by Mohammad, the leader of the Sharia movement, who signed a deal to enforce Islamic law in the troubled area.

Victims are rushed to a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan, following a suicide bomb attack on a funeral procession for a Shiite muslim leader, Feb. 20. Deadly rioting by Shiites followed the attack, prompting a curfew to be imposed on the city.

The Internal Displaced Persons (IDP) camp at the Jalozai area on Feb. 21. By mid-year, hundreds of thousands of people in northwest Pakistan were displaced because of fighting between Taliban insurgents and government troops. That number would swell as fighting spread to South Waziristan later in the year, but many of the refugees have been able to return home.

A convoy of Pakistani paramilitary soldiers streams into the remote Bajaur Agency of the Swat Valley on Feb. 28.



A colleague weeps over the covered body of one of the Pakistani police officers in the mortuary of a hospital in Lahore after gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team. The team was targeted while it was being escorted to a stadium on March 3. The attack left six policemen and two civilians dead and six Sri Lankan players injured.

 

[Rocketsingh]

i wonder,how that happen.this has occurred after the visit of u.s

 

[Forrest Griffin]

A video grab shows two gunmen firing toward police positions in Lahore, during the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. Around a dozen gunmen went after the team's bus as it was driving under police escort to a nearby stadium.

Pakistani tribesmen gather at the site of a suicide blast at a mosque in the town of Jamrud on March 27. A bomber blew himself up in a packed mosque during Friday prayers, killing 48 people and wounding dozens. The bombing took place on the weekly Muslim day of rest in the restive Khyber tribal region, which is located on a key road used to ferry supplies to Western troops across the border in Afghanistan.



Pakistani police officers carry an injured colleague to an armored car in the compound of a police training school on the outskirts of Lahore, March 30. Militants stormed the compound, killing security officers and civilians and later trapping police officers inside. The assault, which underscored the growing threat that militancy poses to Pakistan, came less than a month after the ambush on Sri Lanka's visiting cricket team in the heart of Lahore.

Pakistani paramilitary soldiers arrest a gunman who was about to set off a hand grenade near a military helicopter that was doing aerial suvelliance during the training center attack.



Pakistani firefighters try to extinguish burning NATO oil supply tankers after a blast on the outskirts of Peshawar early on April 10. Suspected Taliban militants planted a bomb that destroyed six tankers supplying fuel to NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, officials said. American and NATO forces fighting in landlocked Afghanistan rely on the convoys for food, fuel and other supplies. Continued attacks are forcing the U.S. and other ISAF members into seeking alternate supply routes via other central Asian nations.

An armed Pakistani Taliban man chats with residents outside a mosque in the Buner district of the troubled Swat Valley on April 23. Pakistan deployed paramilitary troops to northwestern districts infiltrated by Taliban militants as global concern mounted over Islamabad's ability to rein in the Islamists. Taliban patrolled the streets of Buner district, about 60 miles outside Islamabad, warning residents not to engage in "un-Islamic" activity and barring women from public places.

Supporters of Pakistan's fundamentalist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, shout anti-American slogans during a protest in Peshawar on April 24. The protesters criticized U.S. drone attacks in the country's northwest region and demanded that the Pakistan government stop them. The semi-autonomous region was a stronghold of top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed later in the year in a missile strike.

Pakistani troops fire artillery rounds toward Taliban positions in the Rustam area near the Buner district on April 29. Pakistan fighter jets and helicopters pounded Taliban targets in the northwest as President Asif Ali Zardari called for global help to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. Thousands of security forces took on well-armed fighters in the Swat Valley in what Islamabad said was a battle to "eliminate" Islamist militants.

 

[BATMAN]

Pakistan a nation under traitor control.
All those who are taking money from enemies of Pakistan and helping or covering the crimes of India are responsible for all this.

 

[Forrest Griffin]

Supporters of Pakistani religious group Sunni Tehreek protest the Taliban and condemn the suspected U.S. drone attacks in the northwest tribal areas on May 3 in Lahore.

Pakistanis fleeing military operations against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley and Buner fight over mattresses at a distribution point in a makeshift camp in Mardan on May 13.

Pakistanis fleeing military operations against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley and Buner fight over mattresses at a distribution point in a makeshift camp in Mardan on May 13.

A man sprays insect repellant over tents and people at the Sheikh Yasin refugee camp at Mardan, in northwest Pakistan, May 18. The United Nations has appealed for help to provide food, schooling and health care to the multitude of Pakistanis displaced from the Swat area and by fighting in other border regions last year.

Refugees fleeing the fighting in the Swat Valley crowd on top of trucks and buses as they wait at Bela Pass, May 19. Pakistan's military suspended a curfew in the northwest city of Mingora, where it is fighting Taliban guerrillas, officials said, allowing tens of thousands of civilians to flee the area.



Pakistanis gather next to the Tasveer Mahal Cinema following a blast in Peshawar, May 22. At least five people were killed and 80 wounded in the explosion as the army continued its offensive against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley.

Supporters of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Nazaryati, a hardline Islamist, pro-Taliban party, shout slogans during a May 26 protest in Quetta against the military operation in Swat and Buner valleys. Pakistani troops are fighting for control of the areas in an attempt to tamp down religious extremism and violence.

A suicide car bomb destroyed a police office building in Lahore on May 27, klilling 23 people and injuring about 250. At least four men with rifles stepped from the car and opened fire on the building, then set off a massive blast when security guards returned fire.

 

[TechLahore]

I don't quite get the purpose of this thread. Is this where we are supposed to post and view pictures of all unfortunate incidents that happen in Pakistan? Do you intend to start similar threads about other countries too?

Please clarify the purpose of this thread and the rather jingoistic headline which might be welcome at a two bit outlet like Fox, but not at PDF.