The Taliban continue their attacks on the Pakistani military. In the latest attack, a suicide bomber struck at a bakery run by the Pakistani Army in the northwestern district of Nowshera. From Dawn:
At least 18 people were killed and 45 others were injured when a suicide bomber attacked an army-run bakery on the Mall Road in Nowshera Cantonment on Sunday night.
The condition of 12 of the injured people was said to be serious.
According to a police official who refused to identify himself, those killed in the attack included the wife of an army major, his son and a daughter.
The blast caused a massive fire in the bakery and gas cylinders kept there also caught fire and started exploding. A number of adjacent buildings, a restaurant and some shops also caught fire.
Bodies of most of the victims were charred beyond recognition.
According to bomb disposal squad personnel, the bomber appeared to be teenager. His head had been found in the debris of the bakery.
The last major Taliban attack in the district took place in March, when a bomb was detonated in a mosque in Nowshera. Nine people were killed.
Also on Sunday, a bomb was detonated in the Matni area of Peshawar. From Dawn:
A bomb ripped through a passenger vehicle parked at a bus terminal near the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Sunday, killing six people and wounding 11 others, police said.
The bomb was planted at the terminal near a market in Matani, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Peshawar, which lies near Pakistan’s lawless tribal region on the Afghan border, senior police officer Kalam Khan said.
“We have reports that six people were killed and 11 wounded,” khan told AFP. He said rescue teams had been sent to the area.
Peshawar police chief Mohammad Ijaz said a remote controlled device was used in the bombing.
“It appears to be a remote controlled bomb placed in a passenger vehicle waiting to leave for a rural area,” he said, adding that three other vehicles were also damaged.
He quoted witnesses as saying a man boarded the vehicle and left after leaving a package inside, telling people that he would be back soon.
Shortly afterwards a huge blast ripped through the vehicle. The casualties were mostly among the passengers, he added.
The Matni area is frequently hit by the Taliban. A local an anti-Taliban militia has been battered for resisting Taliban rule. A deadly suicide attack in March at a funeral in Matni killed 37 people and wounded more than 50.
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6 Comments
Pakistani military cannot take any action because it says it is over-stretched. Also, it does not think that this is Pakistan’s war, no matter how many Pakistanis are killed by Taliban. Now, can they get more money? ISI is busy planning it’s ‘death by thousand cuts’ war against India. It has no time to find out about Taliban. The Pakistani journalists are too busy with conspiracy theories and their politicians just want to organize ‘ghairat’ protests against US. They have no time to discuss Taliban.
What I find appalling is that Bill posts this kind of stuff in a automatistic fashion, and we just sort of read it like it’s ordinary news – the same as a local bake sale, or a car theft, or X politician blaming X politician for X issue.
Is the fact that we have become desensitized and cold to suicide bombings, does that mean the enemy has taken away our sense of morale and right and wrong? I mean, come on, people – these are human beings strapping explosives to their bodies, and blowing themselves up, and killing other human beings in the process. Blood, guts, limbs, body parts strewn across the place. Families terrorized and torn apart. Lives traumatized for ever.
And we just consider all this another day in the life of Pakistanis, or Middle Easterners?
There should be a global campaign against suicide bombing, and religious scholars from all walks of life should condemn it.
I feel alone in my feelings. Most people don’t care about this Long War, and are content to indulge themselves in their own fantasies while ignoring the very real realities our world faces today. Such people are evil themselves, since they tolerate evil.
Soccer,
In case you didn’t notice, the name of the site is called “The Long War Journal.” With a name like that, I think its pretty reasonable to expect that you’re going to read & see some pretty gruesome things here. And on a regular basis.
I can only speak for myself. I keep this up & site running and work every day because I’m horrified by what happens on a daily basis. I’ve personally witnessed the aftermath of such attacks (you can see an example here: https://www.longwarjournal.org/multimedia/COP-Inman-suicide-attack/ BTW that was carried out a GITMO detainee)
Hopefully, by seeing what happens on a regular basis, people will recognize that this isn’t just a minor problem that would just go away.
Of course “There should be a global campaign against suicide bombing, and religious scholars from all walks of life should condemn it.” But the reality is that there isn’t. And I also find that horrific.
If you are unhappy with the delivery of the news, don’t expect it to change. We don’t do outrage reporting here.
Of course I noticed the name of the site… I come here everyday, because you provide analysis and insight that just doesn’t exist in most parts of the media, alternative and mainstream, today.
I remember that COP attack, hearing about it. I also think I remember that Sunni groups as well as Al Qaeda stole your pictures and used them for their propaganda purposes.
I too, am horrified by these incidents. However, since most people do NOT care about these types of things, or most people simply ignore it, it leaves me to think most people in the west are made of stone when it comes to this subject. It’s almost like their mind puts up a defense mechanism to combat this traumatic reality.
“Hopefully, by seeing what happens on a regular basis, people will recognize that this isn’t just a minor problem that would just go away.”
Yes, hopefully, but I doubt it Bill. People would rather live in their own realities, and that applies to most westerners. People like to think that the world is fairies and roses, and we’re all getting along now, but that’s far from the reality of the world. I wish people would *ACKNOWLEDGE* this issue, and deal with it on a global scale. But it’s only a pipe dream of mine, since most people are too self absorbed these days to do anything about suicide bombing internationally. Contrary to popular belief, the more technology that is created and the more people’s values change, I believe we become more self centered and selfish rather than more “global minded” and willing to help one another. This can be observed with the GWOT, the Arab Spring, etc.
And thus it continues.
And no, I don’t expect it to change.
LWJ is merely an informed messenger and let’s not shoot the messenger for the bad news.
“There should be a global campaign against suicide bombing, and religious scholars from all walks of life should condemn it.”
Taliban calls this fidayeen, not suicide bombing. There may not be any difference between the two, unless you want to involve religious scholars.
According to most well educated Pakistanis, killing Americans using Haqqanis and Indians using LeT is Jihad, not terrorism. And Jihad is their holy duty.
However, when the same mujahids using the same means kill Pakistani sunnis, it becomes ‘worst kind of terrorism’.
Taliban is merely using the same argument against Pakistanis. Pakistanis are munafiqs because they did not follow Baitullah Mehsud’s call to Jihad and therefore not true muslims. If killing kafirs by any means is Jihad (a holy duty), what is wrong when Taliban thinks that killing munafiqs using fidayeen is Jihad?
If Pakistanis think that taliban is good for Afghanistan, why is taliban bad for Pakistan?
“If you waste your time a-talkin’ to the people who don’t listen,
“To the things that you are sayin’, who do you think’s gonna hear.
“And if you should die explainin’ how the things that they complain about,
“Are things they could be changin’, who do you think’s gonna care?”
– Kris Kristofferson, Beat the Devil
Keep up the good work each and every one of you who read, write, and comment on this website. Your voices are not lost in the mist.