Bomb Blast in Crowded Daata Darbar (Shrine), Lahore

[Zillay_Khan]

Do not under-estimate the man in the white pagri in the pic.
He has his feet on the ground at all times, has no time to spout hot intellectual gases, is very 'painfully clear' about his life and has unusual resilience; that is how he still survives in spite of so much adversity.
If we are wise, this man in the white pagri can be 'engine of change'. If we only can understand how to involve him. Change is not going to flow out of keyboards and mouses/mice.

I am with you buddy wow I agree with a indian lol, never underestimate the power of the Pugri

 

[SSGPA1]

PML-N chief backs talks with Taliban ​

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's top opposition leader said Saturday that the government should negotiate with the country's Taliban militants to ease the relentless security crisis in the nuclear-armed, US-allied nation.

Nawaz Sharif made the comments two days after a pair of suicide bombers killed 42 people at a famed Sufi shrine in the province controlled by his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N. The party is considered more religiously conservative and aligned with pro-Taliban parties than the Pakistan People's Party, which runs the federal government.

The comments also come as Pakistan tries to weigh in on reconciliation efforts between Afghanistan's government, the US and the Afghan Taliban. Still, the ruling party in Islamabad has not made the same push in Pakistan for quite some time _ at least not overtly _ and its past peace deals with Pakistani militant groups have usually collapsed.

Sharif said Islamabad shouldn't wait for directives from Washington on how to deal with its problems.

''We have this problem in our home. Why shouldn't we take initiatives?'' he said in a news conference in Lahore that was broadcast live. He specified that the government should talk to the ''Taliban who are ready to talk and ready to listen.''
Federal government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Sharif's party has been criticized in recent months for not going after militant groups in Punjab province, which the party runs and where several lethal ones operate that have ties to al-Qaida and Taliban fighters based along the Afghan border in the northwest. One recent group that has emerged in the eastern province has been labeled the ''Punjabi Taliban.''

Punjab's law minister has even campaigned alongside members of Sipah-e-Sahaba, a Sunni extremist group bent on eradicating minority Shia Muslims. And the party's leaders often respond equivocally or not at all on the subject of Islamist extremism in Pakistan. — AP

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | PML-N chief backs talks with Taliban

********************

Talk with Taliban for what? They need to lay down their arms and it is that simple! By going and having negotiations with the Talibans mean that they we are insulting our shaheeds, both civilians and the military.

We are close to a comprehensive victory so Nawaz Sharif, the closet Taliban, is worried. He is also following the line of his masters in the USA who now want a truce with Talibs in Afghanistan.

Shame on all these traitors, these cowards!

 

[Musafar]

Fire breathing clerics call for revenge​

Heard the adage "A picture is worth a thousand words"?

If this pic doesn't tell you about the piss-poor state enforcement of basic laws then I don't know what will.

Which other country in the world would you find someone openly brandishing an assault rifle a few days after a major terrorist incident in the same city? He's a danger to himself as well as others. And it doesn't help that his preacher is calling to incitement either. Surely there should be a law against that also?

Don't worry though, i'm sure we'll get a sudden news report from the police chief that 20 suicide jackets and 300kg of explosives have been located in a undisclosed warehouse.

Just remind me to yawn.

P.s. Strange how they always make these amazing finds AFTER an incident and never before.

 

[pak-marine]

absolutely, i cant understand why civilians should have guns at all? gun is for the police and army.

in the presence of sh*ty useless law enforcement our citizens have taken security in their hands , never in pak a citizen has used a licensed weapon to go on a kiling spree. These weapons are the only suport we have.

 

[pak-marine]

PML-N chief backs talks with Taliban ​

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's top opposition leader said Saturday that the government should negotiate with the country's Taliban militants to ease the relentless security crisis in the nuclear-armed, US-allied nation.

Nawaz Sharif made the comments two days after a pair of suicide bombers killed 42 people at a famed Sufi shrine in the province controlled by his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N. The party is considered more religiously conservative and aligned with pro-Taliban parties than the Pakistan People's Party, which runs the federal government.

The comments also come as Pakistan tries to weigh in on reconciliation efforts between Afghanistan's government, the US and the Afghan Taliban. Still, the ruling party in Islamabad has not made the same push in Pakistan for quite some time _ at least not overtly _ and its past peace deals with Pakistani militant groups have usually collapsed.

Sharif said Islamabad shouldn't wait for directives from Washington on how to deal with its problems.

''We have this problem in our home. Why shouldn't we take initiatives?'' he said in a news conference in Lahore that was broadcast live. He specified that the government should talk to the ''Taliban who are ready to talk and ready to listen.''
Federal government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Sharif's party has been criticized in recent months for not going after militant groups in Punjab province, which the party runs and where several lethal ones operate that have ties to al-Qaida and Taliban fighters based along the Afghan border in the northwest. One recent group that has emerged in the eastern province has been labeled the ''Punjabi Taliban.''

Punjab's law minister has even campaigned alongside members of Sipah-e-Sahaba, a Sunni extremist group bent on eradicating minority Shia Muslims. And the party's leaders often respond equivocally or not at all on the subject of Islamist extremism in Pakistan. — AP

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | PML-N chief backs talks with Taliban

********************

Talk with Taliban for what? They need to lay down their arms and it is that simple! By going and having negotiations with the Talibans mean that they we are insulting our shaheeds, both civilians and the military.

We are close to a comprehensive victory so Nawaz Sharif, the closet Taliban, is worried. He is also following the line of his masters in the USA who now want a truce with Talibs in Afghanistan.

Shame on all these traitors, these cowards!

nawaz ..what a twat he is ? wants to talk to TTP

 

[sparklingway]

Selective Mourning – by Bahadar Ali Khan​

Victims of apathy, can be the only name given to the current situation of circumstances that have plagued current day Pakistani masses.

A highly condemnable and tragic bombing of Data Sb. shrine has jolted the entire Pakistani public. Data Darbar has remained the most revered and the most esteemed Sufi shrine of the country. Generally from across the entire Pakistan and especially for the Lahories of all strata of the society have immense respect for this place. From an ordinary Tanga-wala to the heads of a big political party like PML-N, everybody has personal affiliations with the Data Darbar. It is a place where people go for various reasons, from requesting ‘mannut’ or to feed the poor for around last thousand years.

The Thursday’s suicide bombing of this esteemed shrine has a lot of food for thought for us as Pakistanis. Tragic it is, but hardly surprising. It simply followed a pattern of distributed hatred that we as Pakistanis have amassed over the period of last 60 years following the British exit from the sub-continent and its subsequent division into India and Pakistan. We are so good at crafting fault-lines within the society that, right now, we are not sure why and how many enemies we might have and on what grounds. But all of us have those.

Right after the creation of Pakistan, we created reasons to divide ourselves. These reasons were pitched on various differential grounds. We first tried to alienate Bengalis over linguistic lines, followed by a ferocious campaigns against Qadyanis, Military-Civilian, Shia-Sunni, Jihadi-Non-jihadi, Maqami-Muhajir, Punjabi-Non-punjabi, leaguy-pipliya and this list goes on. We are a very opinionated society and have the tendency to reach to the desired conclusions in just one session of any debate.

Difference of the opinion is a healthy pre-requisite for any vibrant and progressive society, however, our difference of opinion always receives a unique shade. A shade where the lines between difference of opinion and hatred gets blurred very quickly. The follow up is the immense opposition and hatred for the one on the other side of our opinion divide. As with any ill-educated society and mind, this difference never remains confined to the hatred or opposition only, rather our emotionalism, if provided with some essential catalyst, readily tries to annihilate or silence the opposition by any means, not excluding even the extinction.

Around twenty years ago, we have actually graduated in the art of making ourselves our own enemies. However, the fatal blow to the society came when religious indoctrination was applied to all the acts of individual and society. The kind of control over masses the religion provides is second to none. Zia-CIA needed zealots to fight against Soviets in Afghanistan, religion was used to fill in the cadres. The same guy needed to win Referendum, religion was applied. Army needed much talked about ’strategic’ depth, religion was the handy tool too achieve it. Some individuals wanted to move up on the social ladder of the society, they used religion and got elected to the assemblies, while other made fortune, which they could only dream of previously. On the individual scales, people wanted to settle personal scores they used religious blasphemy law to get their opponent killed by equally religiously charged crowd. Now things have gone to the level, that people are even hiring suicide bombers to kill their political opponents.

We have adopted different yard sticks to gauge the level of pain. In the case of bombing of minorities like Christians, Ahmedis, Hindus or Sikhs happen, the general society doesn’t really worry about and business goes as usual. Equal apathy is prevalent in Shia-Sunni killings. Only the aggrieved camp mourns their deaths, the other one bothers little. Even the bombing of Peshawar and that of Lahore is treated differently. We shed more tears if something happens in Lahore. The concept of humanity and the pain of it, have become alien factors to our society now. We are charged only when something is projected by media, that is why the Israeli attack on Flotilla and siege of Gaza has more importance then the millions of our own besieged people of Parachanar in Kurram Agency.

We are struck with pain after the bombing of Data Darbar, while completing forgetting the fact that this is part of the domino-effect. It was bound to happen. When we earlier ignored the destruction of various revered shrines of Frontier or the bombing of Bari Imam in Islamabad or target destruction of Imam Bargahs, it shouldn’t be surprising to see the current tragic incident and associated loss of human life. Until we will keep on shedding tears only at the death of ‘our own’ while neglecting the pain of ‘others’, this will continue to happen. It is time to bridge-up the ‘us and them’ gap. Humanity should be the common denominator.

Another discouraging factor is the role of society elders and certain segments of media, where after each carnage episode a hysterical spell of denial is spawned. We start pointing fingers on the imaginary enemies and in a one go, name all the foreign agencies and ‘infidel’ governments while completely bypassing the fact that each of us are infidel in our own particular perspective of the sectarian adherence. We chant slogans against each other’s sects by declaring everyone ‘kafir’ except ourselves. So what do you think, the other (read rival ) sect thinks about us, ‘kafir’. So all of us are our own infidels and that justifies every carnage project. The phrases like ‘A Muslim cannot do it’, ‘It is the work of Inida-US-Israel-UK-Black Water’ are utter nonsense. Why they don’t do it in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Malaysia and other Islamic countries, why it is only us? Answer is, we are a nation of nay-sayers, living in a state of perpetual denial. Totally ignoring the ground realities. We are a body of people, who are denying the cancer by attributing it to gastric or muscular pains. In order to cure the cancer, we have to accept its presence first, only then cure can be started.

Now let us also try to briefly cover the grounds which are providing justifications for these gruesome acts.

Since the ascendance of Saud family to rule the Arab in early twentieth century, the terms of ‘Shirk’ (Involving anybody with God’s status ) and ‘Bidaat’ (new thing to Islam), have archived prominence in Saudi Arabia. According to the Puritan ( the one who believes in cleansing of Islam from all perceived aberrations and winding it back to Khilafat-e-Rashida times) interpretation of the Saudi-Islam every shrine or religious individual whom people flock for their homage or respect, is un-Islamic. Following the same rule the House of Saud, razed to the ground the holy and historical graveyard of Jannat-ul-Baqih in early twentieth century because mostly pilgrims from outside Arab would go and pray there. As the news of this desecration of graveyard slowly broke, there were big protests among the Muslims of Hindustan and elsewhere but owing to limited means of communications of those times these protests didn’t get any traction. Later on, the Saudi apologists owe that act to the expansion of the Medina mosque. However, this remained the localized phenomenon, but later with the rising Saudi oil wealth, it attracted un-educated to semi-educated job seekers from outside Arab, who later, got back to their home countries with the new money and strict ideas about Islam. Later on this class was instrumental in the propagation of these ideals and some of them actually established Madaris where these and other strict interpretations of Islam were imbibed to the kids attending their madrassah.

The regime of Zia-ul-Haq and other geopolitical realities of the region also played big part in the imposition of these new ideals of Islam, which before that never existed or had very limited influence on the society. The Madrassah graduates also saw a lot wrong with their local centers of ‘Shrik’ and they launched a verbal tirade against the shrines and shrine-goers. However, the actual dismantling and destructions of these places of ‘Shirk’ would only happen after the Taliban rule was established in Afghanistan. The first most conspicuous episode was the destruction of Buddha’s statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan by Taliban using dynamite. On the local theatre, these acts were first carried out in rural areas of Punjab and Frontier and small and less-known shrines were desecrated. In the later years the scale and target got enhanced and thus we saw a destruction or attempt to the destruction of Rehman Baba Mazar, Bari Imam, Abdullah Shah Gahazi and a lot more. However, the Data Ganj Bakhsh shrine was too sensitive a place even for the zealots to destroy. However, with the rising clout in public and in the presence of all kind their apologist in media and political supporters, nothing remained out of reach. Hence we saw the carnage at Data Darbar too.

As implicitly mentioned above, the vast majority of Pakistani Muslims adhere to Brelvi sect, who are very tolerant but are less-informed. This is the class which is exploited by puritan Jihadis, as both carry the title of Sunni. Now I can see an immense sense of pain and cry over the national media, because the most sacred shrine of the silent majority got hit. However, the same class remains indifferent to the excesses inflicted on the minority Islamic sects and non-Mulsims. The earlier mentioned puritans are very active in the media and cyber space and the can twist any event to any angle. I was surprised to listen that same puritans who were behind the Ahmedi killings in Lahore, later assured people that it was Ahmedis who attacked themselves to get the foreign immigration and visas. It is the same class which after killing Shias, trivialize the event by framing it with the buzz word ‘Shia-Sunni’ clashes. And again it is the same class which after killing Christians stage a blasphemy charade. Question remained to be asked, as why no one knows about this and they remain un-touched. Answer is very sensitive and only I can say it has a lot to do with the ’strategic-depth’ project.

We must understand that Islam was spread in Hindustan by Sufis and mystics and trust me I cannot find anywhere in the history where puritans had any role in it. They played a brief role during Aurangzeb Alamgir’s times but that resulted in the alienation of the faithful Hindu Rajputs who were the back bone of Mughal Empire and after that brief period of orthodoxy, Mughal empire lost the ground for ever. Islam is not with or for the coercion, it is about love, peace and harmony. It is important to be strict in Haqooq-Allah but it is way more important to be nice with fellow human beings or in other words ‘Haqquq-ul-Ibad’ which is the supreme obligation. We are always asked to read Quran and seek guidance, so why we don’t get it. La ikraha fid-din. ( No coercion in Islam ). So what is this? Why it is all happening? This means what ever is happening under the banner of Islam has actually nothing to do with the Islam rather some other grand designs are being followed and that can range anywhere from personal-clout to saving some Arab monarchies

 

[indushek]

Friends i have been off late not been on this thread has anybody claimed responsibility if not what is the GOP doing in regard of this dastardly act

 

[Joe Shearer]

Selective Mourning – by Bahadar Ali Khan​

Victims of apathy, can be the only name given to the current situation of circumstances that have plagued current day Pakistani masses.

A highly condemnable and tragic bombing of Data Sb. shrine has jolted the entire Pakistani public. Data Darbar has remained the most revered and the most esteemed Sufi shrine of the country. Generally from across the entire Pakistan and especially for the Lahories of all strata of the society have immense respect for this place. From an ordinary Tanga-wala to the heads of a big political party like PML-N, everybody has personal affiliations with the Data Darbar. It is a place where people go for various reasons, from requesting ‘mannut’ or to feed the poor for around last thousand years.

The Thursday’s suicide bombing of this esteemed shrine has a lot of food for thought for us as Pakistanis. Tragic it is, but hardly surprising. It simply followed a pattern of distributed hatred that we as Pakistanis have amassed over the period of last 60 years following the British exit from the sub-continent and its subsequent division into India and Pakistan. We are so good at crafting fault-lines within the society that, right now, we are not sure why and how many enemies we might have and on what grounds. But all of us have those.

Right after the creation of Pakistan, we created reasons to divide ourselves. These reasons were pitched on various differential grounds. We first tried to alienate Bengalis over linguistic lines, followed by a ferocious campaigns against Qadyanis, Military-Civilian, Shia-Sunni, Jihadi-Non-jihadi, Maqami-Muhajir, Punjabi-Non-punjabi, leaguy-pipliya and this list goes on. We are a very opinionated society and have the tendency to reach to the desired conclusions in just one session of any debate.

Difference of the opinion is a healthy pre-requisite for any vibrant and progressive society, however, our difference of opinion always receives a unique shade. A shade where the lines between difference of opinion and hatred gets blurred very quickly. The follow up is the immense opposition and hatred for the one on the other side of our opinion divide. As with any ill-educated society and mind, this difference never remains confined to the hatred or opposition only, rather our emotionalism, if provided with some essential catalyst, readily tries to annihilate or silence the opposition by any means, not excluding even the extinction.

Around twenty years ago, we have actually graduated in the art of making ourselves our own enemies. However, the fatal blow to the society came when religious indoctrination was applied to all the acts of individual and society. The kind of control over masses the religion provides is second to none. Zia-CIA needed zealots to fight against Soviets in Afghanistan, religion was used to fill in the cadres. The same guy needed to win Referendum, religion was applied. Army needed much talked about ’strategic’ depth, religion was the handy tool too achieve it. Some individuals wanted to move up on the social ladder of the society, they used religion and got elected to the assemblies, while other made fortune, which they could only dream of previously. On the individual scales, people wanted to settle personal scores they used religious blasphemy law to get their opponent killed by equally religiously charged crowd. Now things have gone to the level, that people are even hiring suicide bombers to kill their political opponents.

We have adopted different yard sticks to gauge the level of pain. In the case of bombing of minorities like Christians, Ahmedis, Hindus or Sikhs happen, the general society doesn’t really worry about and business goes as usual. Equal apathy is prevalent in Shia-Sunni killings. Only the aggrieved camp mourns their deaths, the other one bothers little. Even the bombing of Peshawar and that of Lahore is treated differently. We shed more tears if something happens in Lahore. The concept of humanity and the pain of it, have become alien factors to our society now. We are charged only when something is projected by media, that is why the Israeli attack on Flotilla and siege of Gaza has more importance then the millions of our own besieged people of Parachanar in Kurram Agency.

We are struck with pain after the bombing of Data Darbar, while completing forgetting the fact that this is part of the domino-effect. It was bound to happen. When we earlier ignored the destruction of various revered shrines of Frontier or the bombing of Bari Imam in Islamabad or target destruction of Imam Bargahs, it shouldn’t be surprising to see the current tragic incident and associated loss of human life. Until we will keep on shedding tears only at the death of ‘our own’ while neglecting the pain of ‘others’, this will continue to happen. It is time to bridge-up the ‘us and them’ gap. Humanity should be the common denominator.

Another discouraging factor is the role of society elders and certain segments of media, where after each carnage episode a hysterical spell of denial is spawned. We start pointing fingers on the imaginary enemies and in a one go, name all the foreign agencies and ‘infidel’ governments while completely bypassing the fact that each of us are infidel in our own particular perspective of the sectarian adherence. We chant slogans against each other’s sects by declaring everyone ‘kafir’ except ourselves. So what do you think, the other (read rival ) sect thinks about us, ‘kafir’. So all of us are our own infidels and that justifies every carnage project. The phrases like ‘A Muslim cannot do it’, ‘It is the work of Inida-US-Israel-UK-Black Water’ are utter nonsense. Why they don’t do it in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Malaysia and other Islamic countries, why it is only us? Answer is, we are a nation of nay-sayers, living in a state of perpetual denial. Totally ignoring the ground realities. We are a body of people, who are denying the cancer by attributing it to gastric or muscular pains. In order to cure the cancer, we have to accept its presence first, only then cure can be started.

Now let us also try to briefly cover the grounds which are providing justifications for these gruesome acts.

Since the ascendance of Saud family to rule the Arab in early twentieth century, the terms of ‘Shirk’ (Involving anybody with God’s status ) and ‘Bidaat’ (new thing to Islam), have archived prominence in Saudi Arabia. According to the Puritan ( the one who believes in cleansing of Islam from all perceived aberrations and winding it back to Khilafat-e-Rashida times) interpretation of the Saudi-Islam every shrine or religious individual whom people flock for their homage or respect, is un-Islamic. Following the same rule the House of Saud, razed to the ground the holy and historical graveyard of Jannat-ul-Baqih in early twentieth century because mostly pilgrims from outside Arab would go and pray there. As the news of this desecration of graveyard slowly broke, there were big protests among the Muslims of Hindustan and elsewhere but owing to limited means of communications of those times these protests didn’t get any traction. Later on, the Saudi apologists owe that act to the expansion of the Medina mosque. However, this remained the localized phenomenon, but later with the rising Saudi oil wealth, it attracted un-educated to semi-educated job seekers from outside Arab, who later, got back to their home countries with the new money and strict ideas about Islam. Later on this class was instrumental in the propagation of these ideals and some of them actually established Madaris where these and other strict interpretations of Islam were imbibed to the kids attending their madrassah.

The regime of Zia-ul-Haq and other geopolitical realities of the region also played big part in the imposition of these new ideals of Islam, which before that never existed or had very limited influence on the society. The Madrassah graduates also saw a lot wrong with their local centers of ‘Shrik’ and they launched a verbal tirade against the shrines and shrine-goers. However, the actual dismantling and destructions of these places of ‘Shirk’ would only happen after the Taliban rule was established in Afghanistan. The first most conspicuous episode was the destruction of Buddha’s statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan by Taliban using dynamite. On the local theatre, these acts were first carried out in rural areas of Punjab and Frontier and small and less-known shrines were desecrated. In the later years the scale and target got enhanced and thus we saw a destruction or attempt to the destruction of Rehman Baba Mazar, Bari Imam, Abdullah Shah Gahazi and a lot more. However, the Data Ganj Bakhsh shrine was too sensitive a place even for the zealots to destroy. However, with the rising clout in public and in the presence of all kind their apologist in media and political supporters, nothing remained out of reach. Hence we saw the carnage at Data Darbar too.

As implicitly mentioned above, the vast majority of Pakistani Muslims adhere to Brelvi sect, who are very tolerant but are less-informed. This is the class which is exploited by puritan Jihadis, as both carry the title of Sunni. Now I can see an immense sense of pain and cry over the national media, because the most sacred shrine of the silent majority got hit. However, the same class remains indifferent to the excesses inflicted on the minority Islamic sects and non-Mulsims. The earlier mentioned puritans are very active in the media and cyber space and the can twist any event to any angle. I was surprised to listen that same puritans who were behind the Ahmedi killings in Lahore, later assured people that it was Ahmedis who attacked themselves to get the foreign immigration and visas. It is the same class which after killing Shias, trivialize the event by framing it with the buzz word ‘Shia-Sunni’ clashes. And again it is the same class which after killing Christians stage a blasphemy charade. Question remained to be asked, as why no one knows about this and they remain un-touched. Answer is very sensitive and only I can say it has a lot to do with the ’strategic-depth’ project.

We must understand that Islam was spread in Hindustan by Sufis and mystics and trust me I cannot find anywhere in the history where puritans had any role in it. They played a brief role during Aurangzeb Alamgir’s times but that resulted in the alienation of the faithful Hindu Rajputs who were the back bone of Mughal Empire and after that brief period of orthodoxy, Mughal empire lost the ground for ever. Islam is not with or for the coercion, it is about love, peace and harmony. It is important to be strict in Haqooq-Allah but it is way more important to be nice with fellow human beings or in other words ‘Haqquq-ul-Ibad’ which is the supreme obligation. We are always asked to read Quran and seek guidance, so why we don’t get it. La ikraha fid-din. ( No coercion in Islam ). So what is this? Why it is all happening? This means what ever is happening under the banner of Islam has actually nothing to do with the Islam rather some other grand designs are being followed and that can range anywhere from personal-clout to saving some Arab monarchies

Dear Lord, how painfully honest, how effortlessly brilliant.

 

[Ahmad]

Friends i have been off late not been on this thread has anybody claimed responsibility if not what is the GOP doing in regard of this dastardly act

no responsibility claim yet.

 

[indushek]

Selective Mourning – by Bahadar Ali Khan​

Victims of apathy, can be the only name given to the current situation of circumstances that have plagued current day Pakistani masses.

A highly condemnable and tragic bombing of Data Sb. shrine has jolted the entire Pakistani public. Data Darbar has remained the most revered and the most esteemed Sufi shrine of the country. Generally from across the entire Pakistan and especially for the Lahories of all strata of the society have immense respect for this place. From an ordinary Tanga-wala to the heads of a big political party like PML-N, everybody has personal affiliations with the Data Darbar. It is a place where people go for various reasons, from requesting ‘mannut’ or to feed the poor for around last thousand years.

The Thursday’s suicide bombing of this esteemed shrine has a lot of food for thought for us as Pakistanis. Tragic it is, but hardly surprising. It simply followed a pattern of distributed hatred that we as Pakistanis have amassed over the period of last 60 years following the British exit from the sub-continent and its subsequent division into India and Pakistan. We are so good at crafting fault-lines within the society that, right now, we are not sure why and how many enemies we might have and on what grounds. But all of us have those.

Right after the creation of Pakistan, we created reasons to divide ourselves. These reasons were pitched on various differential grounds. We first tried to alienate Bengalis over linguistic lines, followed by a ferocious campaigns against Qadyanis, Military-Civilian, Shia-Sunni, Jihadi-Non-jihadi, Maqami-Muhajir, Punjabi-Non-punjabi, leaguy-pipliya and this list goes on. We are a very opinionated society and have the tendency to reach to the desired conclusions in just one session of any debate.

Difference of the opinion is a healthy pre-requisite for any vibrant and progressive society, however, our difference of opinion always receives a unique shade. A shade where the lines between difference of opinion and hatred gets blurred very quickly. The follow up is the immense opposition and hatred for the one on the other side of our opinion divide. As with any ill-educated society and mind, this difference never remains confined to the hatred or opposition only, rather our emotionalism, if provided with some essential catalyst, readily tries to annihilate or silence the opposition by any means, not excluding even the extinction.

Around twenty years ago, we have actually graduated in the art of making ourselves our own enemies. However, the fatal blow to the society came when religious indoctrination was applied to all the acts of individual and society. The kind of control over masses the religion provides is second to none. Zia-CIA needed zealots to fight against Soviets in Afghanistan, religion was used to fill in the cadres. The same guy needed to win Referendum, religion was applied. Army needed much talked about ’strategic’ depth, religion was the handy tool too achieve it. Some individuals wanted to move up on the social ladder of the society, they used religion and got elected to the assemblies, while other made fortune, which they could only dream of previously. On the individual scales, people wanted to settle personal scores they used religious blasphemy law to get their opponent killed by equally religiously charged crowd. Now things have gone to the level, that people are even hiring suicide bombers to kill their political opponents.

We have adopted different yard sticks to gauge the level of pain. In the case of bombing of minorities like Christians, Ahmedis, Hindus or Sikhs happen, the general society doesn’t really worry about and business goes as usual. Equal apathy is prevalent in Shia-Sunni killings. Only the aggrieved camp mourns their deaths, the other one bothers little. Even the bombing of Peshawar and that of Lahore is treated differently. We shed more tears if something happens in Lahore. The concept of humanity and the pain of it, have become alien factors to our society now. We are charged only when something is projected by media, that is why the Israeli attack on Flotilla and siege of Gaza has more importance then the millions of our own besieged people of Parachanar in Kurram Agency.

We are struck with pain after the bombing of Data Darbar, while completing forgetting the fact that this is part of the domino-effect. It was bound to happen. When we earlier ignored the destruction of various revered shrines of Frontier or the bombing of Bari Imam in Islamabad or target destruction of Imam Bargahs, it shouldn’t be surprising to see the current tragic incident and associated loss of human life. Until we will keep on shedding tears only at the death of ‘our own’ while neglecting the pain of ‘others’, this will continue to happen. It is time to bridge-up the ‘us and them’ gap. Humanity should be the common denominator.

Another discouraging factor is the role of society elders and certain segments of media, where after each carnage episode a hysterical spell of denial is spawned. We start pointing fingers on the imaginary enemies and in a one go, name all the foreign agencies and ‘infidel’ governments while completely bypassing the fact that each of us are infidel in our own particular perspective of the sectarian adherence. We chant slogans against each other’s sects by declaring everyone ‘kafir’ except ourselves. So what do you think, the other (read rival ) sect thinks about us, ‘kafir’. So all of us are our own infidels and that justifies every carnage project. The phrases like ‘A Muslim cannot do it’, ‘It is the work of Inida-US-Israel-UK-Black Water’ are utter nonsense. Why they don’t do it in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Malaysia and other Islamic countries, why it is only us? Answer is, we are a nation of nay-sayers, living in a state of perpetual denial. Totally ignoring the ground realities. We are a body of people, who are denying the cancer by attributing it to gastric or muscular pains. In order to cure the cancer, we have to accept its presence first, only then cure can be started.

Now let us also try to briefly cover the grounds which are providing justifications for these gruesome acts.

Since the ascendance of Saud family to rule the Arab in early twentieth century, the terms of ‘Shirk’ (Involving anybody with God’s status ) and ‘Bidaat’ (new thing to Islam), have archived prominence in Saudi Arabia. According to the Puritan ( the one who believes in cleansing of Islam from all perceived aberrations and winding it back to Khilafat-e-Rashida times) interpretation of the Saudi-Islam every shrine or religious individual whom people flock for their homage or respect, is un-Islamic. Following the same rule the House of Saud, razed to the ground the holy and historical graveyard of Jannat-ul-Baqih in early twentieth century because mostly pilgrims from outside Arab would go and pray there. As the news of this desecration of graveyard slowly broke, there were big protests among the Muslims of Hindustan and elsewhere but owing to limited means of communications of those times these protests didn’t get any traction. Later on, the Saudi apologists owe that act to the expansion of the Medina mosque. However, this remained the localized phenomenon, but later with the rising Saudi oil wealth, it attracted un-educated to semi-educated job seekers from outside Arab, who later, got back to their home countries with the new money and strict ideas about Islam. Later on this class was instrumental in the propagation of these ideals and some of them actually established Madaris where these and other strict interpretations of Islam were imbibed to the kids attending their madrassah.

The regime of Zia-ul-Haq and other geopolitical realities of the region also played big part in the imposition of these new ideals of Islam, which before that never existed or had very limited influence on the society. The Madrassah graduates also saw a lot wrong with their local centers of ‘Shrik’ and they launched a verbal tirade against the shrines and shrine-goers. However, the actual dismantling and destructions of these places of ‘Shirk’ would only happen after the Taliban rule was established in Afghanistan. The first most conspicuous episode was the destruction of Buddha’s statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan by Taliban using dynamite. On the local theatre, these acts were first carried out in rural areas of Punjab and Frontier and small and less-known shrines were desecrated. In the later years the scale and target got enhanced and thus we saw a destruction or attempt to the destruction of Rehman Baba Mazar, Bari Imam, Abdullah Shah Gahazi and a lot more. However, the Data Ganj Bakhsh shrine was too sensitive a place even for the zealots to destroy. However, with the rising clout in public and in the presence of all kind their apologist in media and political supporters, nothing remained out of reach. Hence we saw the carnage at Data Darbar too.

As implicitly mentioned above, the vast majority of Pakistani Muslims adhere to Brelvi sect, who are very tolerant but are less-informed. This is the class which is exploited by puritan Jihadis, as both carry the title of Sunni. Now I can see an immense sense of pain and cry over the national media, because the most sacred shrine of the silent majority got hit. However, the same class remains indifferent to the excesses inflicted on the minority Islamic sects and non-Mulsims. The earlier mentioned puritans are very active in the media and cyber space and the can twist any event to any angle. I was surprised to listen that same puritans who were behind the Ahmedi killings in Lahore, later assured people that it was Ahmedis who attacked themselves to get the foreign immigration and visas. It is the same class which after killing Shias, trivialize the event by framing it with the buzz word ‘Shia-Sunni’ clashes. And again it is the same class which after killing Christians stage a blasphemy charade. Question remained to be asked, as why no one knows about this and they remain un-touched. Answer is very sensitive and only I can say it has a lot to do with the ’strategic-depth’ project.

We must understand that Islam was spread in Hindustan by Sufis and mystics and trust me I cannot find anywhere in the history where puritans had any role in it. They played a brief role during Aurangzeb Alamgir’s times but that resulted in the alienation of the faithful Hindu Rajputs who were the back bone of Mughal Empire and after that brief period of orthodoxy, Mughal empire lost the ground for ever. Islam is not with or for the coercion, it is about love, peace and harmony. It is important to be strict in Haqooq-Allah but it is way more important to be nice with fellow human beings or in other words ‘Haqquq-ul-Ibad’ which is the supreme obligation. We are always asked to read Quran and seek guidance, so why we don’t get it. La ikraha fid-din. ( No coercion in Islam ). So what is this? Why it is all happening? This means what ever is happening under the banner of Islam has actually nothing to do with the Islam rather some other grand designs are being followed and that can range anywhere from personal-clout to saving some Arab monarchies

Well Sir as an educated person (please don't understand this as the school education we recieve but i mean the human education which can only be gained through studying of fellow beings) u musta have known by now that it is only more visible in your country but is omnipresent in every country religion and community where the human being tries to twist the words of god by proposing his own meaning to them (words of god). It can be agreed by sane people that Moses or Allah or Jesus or Krishna or whoever are prophets they carry the word of the supreme being, that is to love everyone human or otherwise. One can take this problem in ur country as a test by the supreme one ( please mind that i am not saying we are not facing this, infact the whole humanity is facing this due to few misguided souls).

My argument may seem unpractical, silly and i may look as a fool unrealted to reality, but as a devout of the supreme one this is my strong belief. As such i sincerely pray to the one that he may provide strength and belief to your nation that u may overcome this problem and progress.

 

[Old School]

no responsibility claim yet.

And there will not be any claim either. Terrorists have accomplished their objectives. This type of attacks are not meant for taking responsibility. If they take responsibility , the invisibility disappears. Psychology of terrorism is a separate subject( area of study) on it's own right that requires a lot of attention.

 

[T-Faz]

The people who worked for this country have been shunned by our government and our people have been coerced into a life of social and religious abnormality.

Certain people are jubilant when a Shia, Ahmadi, Sufi, Sikh, Hindu or Christian is killed. There mindset is twisted to an utterly despicable manner.

There are talks of Muslim unity and brotherhood but they fail to realise that nothing of that sort exists. Our government played Allah's role to declare some group non Muslim, Zina laws were used for rape victims, blasphemy laws were put in place that were only used by thugs and extremists. The whole country is being held hostage by gun wielding Mullahs who were vehemently against Pakistan in the first place.

Our elite class do not care about the common man, we have been systemically kicked out of the system only to be replaced by clerics with a divine mission of subjugation and violence.

This is all the fault of two weaklings, the former being Bhutto who gave into the demands of the religious groups and the latter being the buthcher of Palestinians known as Zia.

We had great men who created this country and none of them were these religiously challenged populace which are known as Pakistani's today.

In the 70's, our great Noble Prize winning scientist came to Pakistan to open a world class science institute where by we would have produced many great minds but becuase he belonged to a different group, he was chased away. Instead we were cursed with madrassas becuase of which we are on our knees today. Never have I seen the Mullahs helping Pakistan but others who do have been labelled as enemies.

And you know the mentioned scientist, he never came back to Pakistan but retained his citizenship becuase he did not want Pakistan to loose their only Noble Prize winner. The way things are going, I am not expecting any other Pakistani to achieve the greatness we could have had.

Ask others who have seen Pakistan and know real Pakistani's, they would indicate the potential we have but ask why we are unable to achieve all that we could. All you can say is that my own people did not allow it to happen.

I love my country, sadly can't say the same about the people who reside in it now.

 

[khurasaan1]

"A Muslim is the one from whose hands and tongue other Muslims are safe"

So please guys, stop calling them Muslims, see the reality yourself

The selfclaimed Ahmedis ..are not even Ahmedis..infact they are Qadyanis..who are NON_MUSLIMS...Their pray place is called Bait not Mosque...
AnyWays whoever is behind these...BOMB Blast in Data Darbar...are biggest evil powers of this Time...soon they will be disintegrated...and diappear alongwith their evil acts...They are the enemies of Islam an Muslims...no matter whatever face or sect they show(use) ..they are the enemies of Islam...no doubt about it.....Pak Army is making a great Jihad against them...in all fronts..Alhamdolillah...

 

[Bhim]

Both the moderators have written an astonishing fact revelation, which if becomes the guiding spirit of new policy, then I see no reason why this region cannot be glorious once again.
Thank you.

 

[NWO]

Now, I began to wonder: why would two young people, presumably Muslim, attack a sacred Shrine via suicide bombing? In the name of Allah? Lack of education? Poverty? No, I think its a bit deeper then that.

People both in Afghanistan and FATA grow up listening to these snakes who dare call themselves Mullahs and are taught that US and most of the West are evil, and Pakistan is their servant. They see US drone attacks attack without hesitation, and see Pakistan joining in only after the US 'requests' so. Their lives are disrupted by the PA and PAF. These suicide bombers could have lost their families, or their livelihoods in military actions. They would surely lose their faith in Allah, and Data Darbar would therefore hold no importance to them. They attack out of hatred because thats all that ever been shown to them.

I'm just offering this out as a theory. I'm not saying its correct, nor trying to justify what happened at Data Darbar. I'm waiting eagerly for any operation to begin in N. Waziristan. I'm just trying to see what these people are thinking when they do this.