Lahore Blasts

[Ahmad]

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Pakistan's Taliban on Friday took responsibility for triple bombings at a Shia Muslim procession in the city of Lahore that killed 33 people.

Wednesday's blasts in the eastern city was the first major militant attack in Pakistan since floods waters tore through the country over the past month.

“It's revenge for the killings of innocent Sunnis,” a spokesman for Qari Hussain Mehsud, mentor of the Taliban's suicide bombers, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

“We also have videos of the fidayeen (bombers) and we may release them,” the spokesman Shakirullah Mehsud told Reuters.

Hussain is a senior leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan led by Hakimullah Mehsud, who was charged by US prosecutors this week in the plot that killed seven CIA employees at an American base in Afghanistan last December.

The United States on Wednesday included TTP in its list of foreign terrorist organisations and announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest and another TTP leader, Wali-ur-Rehman.

Commonly known as “Ustad-e-Fidayeen” or “the mentor of suicide bombers,” Hussain began his militant career with an anti-Shia group before joining TTP, the main Taliban grouping in Pakistan which is fighting Pakistani government forces and is also increasingly seen as direct threat to the United States.

The attack in Lahore came as the government is struggling to cope with country's worst floods with millions of people threatened by malnutrition and diseases.

The floods struck just as the army said it had made progress in the war against the TTP militants. – Reuters

 

[Ahmad]

The taliban have always enjoyed killing shias.

 

[jha]

The taliban have always enjoyed killing shias.

A little correction...Taliban have always enjoyed killing..

 

[kugga]

So let's see who else comes and accepts the responsibility of attacks.. That just make comfort for the investigative agencies... don't do much work just blame it on Taliban as they have already accepted it...

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

it was most likely sipahe sahaba.


actually, if you have facebook (which i assume most of you do) you should report these groups as hatred inciting/terrorist




http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=141180239253509&topic=205#!/pages/Sipah-sahaba/141180239253509

http://www.facebook.com/pages/KAFIR-KAFIR-SHIA-KAFIR/107881189237354



these are all sectarian groups; interestingly enough, a lot of the members don't even live in Pakistan! Go figure.

report those groups if/when you have time

 

[Patriot]

So let's see who else comes and accepts the responsibility of attacks.. That just make comfort for the investigative agencies... don't do much work just blame it on Taliban as they have already accepted it...

I agree - This is more likely handy work of SSP, LEJ and other domestic Punjabi Organizations rather then Taliban who like to kill plenty of civilian and security men at one go.In any case attack all these organizations.

 

[DaRk WaVe]

Sectarian violence

Everyone’s worst fears were realised on Wednesday when a Youm-i-Ali procession in Lahore came under attack by at least two suicide bombers. Another explosion also took place but it remains unclear whether a suicide attacker or a time bomb was involved in that particular blast.
Either way the result was carnage: more than 30 mourners lost their lives and nearly 300 were left injured. The bombings were a grim reminder of the Ashura and Chehlum blasts in Karachi a few months ago and reinforced fears that there is no stopping the sectarian terrorists who are repeatedly targeting the country’s Shia community. Given the bloodshed that recently took place in the Sindh capital, it was generally believed that Karachi was the city most at risk this time round as well. So what did the terrorists do? Apparently one jump ahead of the authorities, they hit the mourners in Lahore instead. Not that Karachi was spared altogether. Mourners were fired at in the Saddar area on Wednesday in an incident that many believe was aimed at triggering not just sectarian but also ethnic unrest.

It is time that Pakistan’s politicians realised that the ultimate aim of such extremist outfits, many of whom are hand in glove with the Tehrik-i-Taliban, is to ignite sectarian conflict in the country. To foil their mission of further destabilising an already battered nation, politicians of every hue must be on the same page irrespective of their ideology or affiliation. There is no room here for playing politics, for the opposition scoring points at the expense of the government and vice versa. The enemy here is common to all and it cannot be tackled effectively without a united front. Much is made of intelligence failures vis-à-vis the fight against terrorism and there is clearly some merit in those arguments. But there is a possibility that the agencies may get the right message if the country’s legislators embark aggressively on a joint strategy for taking sectarian terrorists to task.

That said, the Shia community must also accept the fact that local administrations, inept or otherwise, cannot go it alone in preventing attacks on its members. Community volunteers are already doing a commendable job manning entrance points to various imambargahs and conducting security checks on those who wish to enter. Worshippers do not mind this frisking because it is carried out by their own. Perhaps it is time that such checks, though admittedly a far more testing task, were replicated at checkpoints along procession routes because the police are naturally hesitant to offend anyone’s religious sensibilities. In short, this is a joint struggle and everyone must be on board.

 

[Beskar]

September's going to be a pretty tough month for the country.

May God Bless the ones who've departed and may the wounded heal asap. Surprised to see that even after all this violence 'Zinda Dilan-e-Lahore' are unmoved by these events. Markets, Shopping Malls, Restaurants are crawling with people as Eid-ul-fitar approaches.

I just hope there isn't any more of this violent nonsense. Ramadan and Eid are supposed to be a time of rejuvenation and happiness.