One day after a suicide bomber killed 19 Pakistanis, including 15 policemen, in the capital of Islamabad, a string of bombings rocked the southern port city of Karachi. One civilian was killed and more than 50 wounded after a series of seven bombs were detonated throughout the city over the course of 90 minutes.
The bombs were said to be relatively small and were designed “to create panic in the city,” the provincial police chief in Sindh told AFP. “There is also a possibility that the people who planted the bombs wanted to fan ethnic tensions in the city,” Sindh Police Inspector General Sallahuddin Babar Khattak said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings. But just this past weekend, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM, or United National Movement), the third largest political party in Pakistan that also runs Sindh province, began to warn about the “Talibanization” of Karachi and threatened to take action. The MQM put out warning messages to its party members and labor groups. Soon afterward, anti-Taliban graffiti began appearing on the street of Karachi. The graffiti was apparently produced by the Sipah-e-Mohammad, a Shia militia that has gone underground.
In April, reports indicated Sunni extremist groups banned by the Pakistani government after the Sept. 11 attacks are reestablishing branches inside Karachi. Kashmiri terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkat-ul- Mujahideen, and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen have been building a base in the southern port city. Each of these groups serves as what an unnamed US intelligence official calls “muscle” for al Qaeda. The groups provide support and fighters to conduct attacks in Pakistan and beyond.
Harakat-ul-Mujahideen is a jihadist group that was formed in 1985 to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. After the war, it moved into Kashmir to fight the Indians. The group is said to have thousands of supporters and fighters.
Jaish-e-Mohammad was formed in 1994 after splintering from the Harakat-ul-Mujahideen. The group focuses its activities in Kashmir but it has been behind some of the most high-profile terror incidents, including the execution of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, an incident that nearly sparked a war between the two nations.
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen is considered the largest Kashmiri-based terror outfit. Sayeed Sallahuddin, the group’s leader, reportedly has been in Karachi and Peshawar in the Northwest Frontier Province. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen “is reported to have a close association with the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence and the United Jihad Council, and other terrorist organizations operating out of Pakistan,” The Southeast Asia Terrorism Portal states. The United Jihad Council is a conglomeration of the Kashmiri terror groups led by Sallahuddin and supported by the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence.
Karachi has been the scene of intense sectarian clashes over the past several decades. The MQM and Pashtuns who have settled from the Northwest Frontier Province have fought deadly turf wars in the city.
Karachi was the scene of deadly clashes in December 2007 after the suspended chief justice of the Pakistani Supreme Court arrived for a demonstration. At least 31 people were killed and hundreds wounded after supporters of the MQM rampaged in an effort to disrupt the justice’s speech. “Many of the 15,000 police and security forces deployed in the city stood idly by as armed activists from [the MQM], blocked Mr. Chaudhry’s exit from the airport and took control of the city’s central district,” the Telegraph reported. MQM supporters on motorcycles fired into crowds of the justice’s supporters.
The largest suicide attack in Pakistan occurred in Karachi in October 2007. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was targeted the day she returned from exile in a sophisticated, multipronged ambush that included suicide bombers, roadside bombs, and snipers. More than 136 were killed and 500-plus wounded. Bhutto survived the attack but was killed two months later in a complex attack while campaigning in Rawalpindi.
9 Comments
This only proves that the situation is now far worse in Pakistan than any where else in the war on terror. There have now been three siginificant bombings in the space of one week, all emanating from Paksitan, or connected to it.
There needs to be an awakening among the people just the way the Sunnis did in Al-Anbar. Unfortunately, i think that’s very improbable at this point. I thought Bhutto’s tragedy would turn things around when it comes to people realizing the evil of terrorism and confronting it head on.
The next POTUS has his hands full.
An unstable Pakistan could become a nightmare problem for us. They have inter-continental missiles and nuclear weapons. So much for our supplies pass through that area. They seem to be more and more unstable each month. They apear to be the training school site for a majority of terrorists. Their porous border with Afghanistan is open to terrorists. How do we solve this problem?
Finch,
I believe there are 5 options.
1. Do nothing
2. Convert to Islam
3. Take out the training camps/schools (Madrases)
4. Use COIN but then we’re the invaders
5 Bomb them back to the stone age where the Radicals seem to want to be anyway.
I’d have added education but we seem to have little problem with that here at home.
I expect the Pakistani airforce is much more professional, educated and cohesive than the army and represents the line of defense if a terrorist take over appears imminent…i doubt that the airforce is particularly sympathetic to Islamic terrorists.
Next is the Indian Military which wont let the nukes fall into the hands of the terrorists since India is the immediate and most accessible target(Israel is too far). Doubtless the Indians have been reflecting on such a possibility for years.
After that come the Chinese who have invested heavily in making Pakistan their biggest client state and have a substantial stake in protecting their most important and visible client. Moreover, Pakistani is not an inconsequential trading partner for China. It provides the raw materials for a significant part of China’s textile industry, which is a big employer.Pakistan is also a growing supplier of food to China. For the Chinese , Pakistan is an expanding market for manufactured goods and software .
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 07/08/2008 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.
I am hoping that we have some intel on where these nuke sites are so that in an emergency we can…dispose of them if necessary in case Pakistan continues on its path to becoming a failed state. Let’s also hope that ANA comes up to power. If we can’t crush the Taliban/AQ just yet, at least we might be able to box them in until we can.
1. I do not believe anyone posting here is anti-Islam . If they were, they would be cheering on the Taliban/AQ who kill, maim and humiliate muslims every day in their own homelands
2. There are 2 explanations for why NW Pakistan is a safe haven for terrorists. Either the Pakistani military is simply too incompetent and weak to take back their own country(leading people to the “failed state” hypothesis) OR the terrorists are permitted to use Pakistan as a safe haven by the Pakistani Govt., which makes the Pakistani military a sposor of terrorism
3. I am optimistic that the ordinary people of Pakistan will eventually have their “awakening” as well ,following the Saudis, Iraqis and the young people of Iran. Of course, when this will occur we cannot predict
this is absurd and getting out of hand. pakistan is a nation with a military force of air and ground support and the taliban on the other hand is a poorly trained group of thugs.now what i fail to understand is how in the hell is u going to let a group of thugs take over a nation? the whole peace thing is a setup just to make sure when they carry out attacks that they dont get any hostility from it and they made clear they will continue jihad aganist NATO.so what more do u need to let u know that force is need in the tribal areas? the taliban could give a damn about peace and america understand that but pakistan dont and its making them look like they are scared of the taliban when the taliban continues to break the peace and pakistan continues to go on the offensive.im not saying that they should’nt try to make peace but obviously it seems that attacks are on the rise in pakistan and afghanistan so hence they dont want the peace so that means military operations in the tribal areas just like musharraf did cause he understood the threat but the new government fails too
paulO:
I think you are right about Pakistan being the most dangerous country n the world. They have nukes, missiles, and an unstable government. They are a keg pof powder with the fuse half lit. Their government, intelligance service and military are full of rival competing parties. They seem to be completely fragmented.