New terrorist attack in Lahore leads Pakistanis to despair - 31-Mar-2009 - Generational Dynamics

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-Mar-2009

New terrorist attack in Lahore leads Pakistanis to despair

An 8-hour attack on a residential barracks for police trainees on Monday ended with 10 dead and over 100 wounded.

India and Pakistan

India and Pakistan

"The attackers arrived at the police academy apparently in pick-up vans at about 7:15am. Some of them were wearing police uniforms. They entered the sprawling compound by scaling the rear boundary wall. More than 800 unarmed trainees were in the grounds for the morning parade. The attackers threw grenades at the trainees and began to fire indiscriminately. Police were not able to put up a significant resistance. Some of the gunmen took up positions on the first and second floor of the three-storey residential barracks. A coherent response to the attack began about 30 minutes later, when Elite Force commandos surrounded the building. Rangers and army troops arrived at 9am and stormed the premises in armoured vehicles. Four helicopters hovered overhead. The troops were able to free the hostages and regain control of the facility after an eight-hour standoff. Three attackers blew themselves up to avoid capture in the top-storey room in which they had holed up. An Afghan attacker was arrested from outside the premises during the operation."

It was just three weeks ago when the entire nation was shocked by a terrorist attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team, as they were headed to the stadium in Lahore.

There are now several terrorist attacks every week in Pakistan, mostly in the Northwest Frontier Province and the tribal regions. But the two attacks in the supposedly safe city of Lahore, within the same month, have revealed to many Pakistanis that terrorism is spreading rapidly throughout the country.

Here's a list of the major earlier Pakistan terrorist attacks in the last year:

27 March 09: Suicide bomber demolishes crowded mosque near the north-western town of Jamrud, killing dozens

3 March 09: Six policemen and a driver killed, and several cricketers injured, in ambush on the Sri Lanka cricket team in central Lahore

20 Sept 08: 54 die in an attack on the Marriott hotel in Islamabad

6 Sept 08: Suicide car bombing kills 35 and wounds 80 at a police checkpoint in Peshawar

Aug 08: Twin suicide bombings at gates of a weapons factory in town of Wah leave 67 dead

March 08: Suicide bombs hit police headquarters and suburban house in Lahore, killing 24

With the fear of terrorism spreading, Interior Minister Rehman Malik urged the country to unite against Taliban extremists. He said Pakistan's integrity was "in danger at this time".

"This is not a law and order issue. This is an attack on Pakistan. We have two choices: hand the country over to the Taliban or fight it out," said Malik.

However, many people support the militants for nationalistic reasons. The militants lead the fight for capturing control of Indian-controlled Kashmir from India. And many young people especially blame the Pakistani terrorism on the United States for inflaming the militants by fighting the war on terror in Afghanistan.

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, as well as more frequent updates on this subject, see the Afghanistan, Pakistan and India thread of the Generational Dynamics forum.) (31-Mar-2009) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-Mar-2009 New terrorist attack in Lahore leads Pakistanis to despair

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-Mar-2009
New terrorist attack in Lahore leads Pakistanis to despair