General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSuicide bomber kills at least 52, mostly women, kids in Pakistan park
A suicide bomber killed at least 52 people, mostly women and children, at a public park in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Sunday, government officials and police said, striking at the heart of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's political base of Punjab.
The blast occurred in the parking area of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, a few feet away from children's swings. Around 150 people were injured in the explosion, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation of 190 million people, is plagued by a Taliban insurgency, criminal gangs and sectarian violence. Punjab is its biggest and wealthiest province.
Eyewitnesses said they saw body parts strewn across the parking lot once the dust had settled after the blast.
The park had been particularly busy on Sunday evening due to the Easter holiday weekend.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-blast-idUSKCN0WT0HR
Anyone have insights into this area of Pakistan and who the most likely culprits might be?
Igel
(35,356 posts)Jamiatul Islam, Tehrik whatever, other groups belonging to the originally native fundie Deobandi school of theology but now also partly Wahhabist Ahl movement that's been going for a good number of decades. The closest we can come to a way of blaming the West for it is the claim it arose in response to British rule. (Which simplifies things more than possible. Much of the problem with the Brits is that they weren't Muslim and made sure that Hindus were treated not much differently than the formerly Muslim rulers and ruling classes.)
Pakistan has a problem that goes deep: Its existence is based on Muslim nationalism and the "we need a Muslim homeland" movement that the Deobandis helped to foster and promote. But having made that their ideological mainstay, it's hard to tamp down the Muslim nationalists (or nationalist Muslims) who want a theocratic, Muslim state.
Israel has a similar problem, that we have no compunctions in condemning because it's okay to diss white educated Westerners, but in the case of Israel there's Western liberal thought with a "all men are equal" in some sense that helps to mitigate that kind of attitude. In Pakistan, "Western liberal thought" = "colonialist beliefs" for many, and there is no corresponding "all men are brothers" thinking. Theirs is a different intellectual tradition, much like pre-Enlightenment Europe's, in which those who are superior should rule and those who are lesser folk should submit. We saw that in Spain under Muslim rule; we saw that in what Spain did in Central America, to the ethnicities there.
grossproffit
(5,591 posts)The silence on this topic is deafening. My blood is boiling right now. The double standards are sickening.
grossproffit
(5,591 posts)I'm so angry that I could spit.
I've had to delete what I've posted at least a dozen times. My blood is boiling.
grossproffit
(5,591 posts)TTP = Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
04alsabi
(31 posts)The bloody wheel of senseless violence rolls relentlessly on.