Terrorism in Pakistan

You know how they say "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me"? Well, who the fuck should be ashamed if you're fooled three times? We've now had three suicide attacks in less than four days. On Friday, someone blew themselves up outside the Marriot in Islamabad. On Saturday night, the target was a Shia procession in Peshawar, which killed a bunch of policemen who were making security arrangements for it. Today, another suicide bomber killed himself, a civilian and another policeman in Dera Ismail Khan, near where Shias were meant to hold another procession.

A couple of points. First of all, it's almost tragically easy to see these things coming. It's Muharram (for non-Pakistani/non-Muslim readers, the 10th of Muharram is called Ashura, perhaps the most important day of the year for Shias), it's Pakistan, so we're going to get people dying. In fact, the Daily Times actually predicted something like this after the Islamabad attack, asking, "Can the Peshawar government prevent the foretold killings in the province [NWFP] on Ashura?" Well, I guess they have their answer now. Being Shia in Pakistan, especially over the last ten years, has become an increasingly risky business. Though some Shia groups have been responsible for terrorist activity themselves, it is by and large Sunnis who are the perpretrators of sectarian violence and Shias who are the victims.

Second, we all know who's responsible. If it's not Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, it's Jaish-e-Muhammad. If it's not Jaish-e-Muhammad, it's Sipah-e-Sahaba. If it's not Sipah-e-Sahaba, it's Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. These groups have a lot more that unites them than divides them. The same people who kill Pakistani soldiers in Waziristan are the same people who blow themselves in crowds in Karachi who are the same people who target Shias who are the same people who have been waging Jihad in Kashmir for years who are the same people who attempt to assassinate Musharraf. The point to be made is this: we all know about the closet support given to these types of people when they kill American soldiers or fight for "Kashmir's right of self-determination" by Urdu newspaper columnists, Ayaz Amir types (remember, he called Osama a "hero"), and large sections of our political, military, intelligence, and bureaucratic establishments. But what now? Where are their cheerleading statements and columns now? You can't support what they do one day and not the next, simply based on the nationality/skin colour/religion/sect of their victims. Either you think they're "heroes" or "terrorists". There's no in-between. So if you do think they're heroes, then please say so. Don't wait for them to kill Americans; do it now. Say "It is heroic to kill policemen and to target Shias in Muharram". Say it, Ayaz Amir, fucking say it. I can't hear you, you hypocritical fuckwit. Asshole.