What Goes Around Comes Around
"Panic spread among the worshippers when the firing started. I ran to save my life.""Suddenly a man came in and started firing... He shot many people [and] then closed his eyes and blew himself up.""After that, I have no idea what happened."Hospitalized Pakistani worshipper at Shi'ite Peshawar mosque
Soldiers inspect the mosque after Friday's bomb blast in Peshawar. (Abdul Majeed/AFP/Getty Images) |
The
death toll of 58 Shi'ite worshippers last Friday at a Peshawar mosque
is likely to rise, according to police, given that among the 194 that
had been wounded in the attack, many were in critical condition. The
suicidal attacker is among the dead. It had not immediately been
confirmed who was responsible for the attack. The Pakistani Taliban
claim they were not involved, and initially no other group had come
forward to boast of the attack.
Pakistan's
Shi'ites have long been under threat by the Sunni majority, targeted by
Muslim Islamist militants; Islamic State and Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan. In a sense, this deadly sectarian conflict can be laid at the
responsibility of Saudi Arabia whose Wahhabist sect of puritanical
Islam, dating back centuries and more recently renewed, was spread,
courtesy of Saudi oil money that enabled the building of madrasas built
everywhere in the Muslim world and beyond.
Students
attending such schools are taught the fundamentals of 'pure' Islam, in
which the concept of violent jihad is considered one of the pillars of
Islam, an obligation of all true faithful of Islam to engage. One of the
better-known, modern day illuminati of the Wahhabist school of Islamism
none other than Osama bin Laden. The targeted mosque was the sole place
of worship for Pakistani Shi'ites in the old city of Peshawar.
"We are in a state of emergency and the injured are being shifted to the hospital",
disclosed police officer Mohammad Sajjan Khan. Wahhabist Islam
considers Shi'ism to be false Islam and those who practise it, no more
and no less practising apostasy. Jihad is directed to destroy their
lives since they are regarded as opponents not supporters of Islam.
An
armed assassin arrived at the mosque on a motorcycle. He fired at
police when he was stopped, then forced his way into the mosque hall
crowded with the faithful, began firing, and finally detonated his
suicide vest. Prior to entering the mosque the attacker shot at police
guards standing at the entrance to the mosque, killing one. Police had
the impression there were two men involved, initially.
An injured man sits on a stretcher in Peshawar, after a bomb blast in a mosque during Friday prayers. (Khuram Parvez/Reuters) |
There is deadly irony in this situation in Pakistan. While ostensibly a
partner in the global war against terrorism, Pakistan's
Inter-Intelligence Agency trained and armed the Afghan Taliban which
found haven inside Pakistan's mountainous regions bordering Afghanistan
following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan to roust Osama bin Laden
and al-Qaeda whom the Taliban were sheltering in Afghanistan.
Bin
Laden himself was eventually domiciled in Abbottabad, Pakistan, his
compound located near a Pakistani military garrison, where US special
forces eventually caught up with him.
And
while surreptitiously Pakistan, through its military was aiding and
abetting the Afghan Taliban, in their own Islamist mountain tribal
communities their own Taliban sprang up. The Pakistani Taliban became a
threat the government of Pakistan had to reckon with, and still attempts
to clamp down on. Although a unit of Islamic State eventually claimed
it was involved in the suicide attack, it is entirely likely it was
indeed the work of the Pakistani Taliban.
With
the ascension to power in Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban have
emboldened the activities of the Pakistani Taliban. And they have
launched attacks into Pakistan from the safe haven that Afghanistan has
now become for them, despite that the Afghan Taliban had publicly vowed
that the country they once again govern will never become a launching
pad for terrorist attacks against their neighbours.
Which
was precisely what Pakistan had been from 2001 forward. Now, is is the
government of Pakistan that has appealed to the governing Afghan Taliban
to hand over any Pakistani Taliban on their soil who launch attacks
into Pakistan. So far, none have been.
Rescue workers and volunteers gather at the site of bomb explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, March 4, 2022. A powerful bomb exploded inside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday, killing more than 30 worshippers and wounding dozens more, many of them critically, police said. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad) |
Labels: Afghan Taliban, Pakistan, Pakistani Taliban Shiite Mosque, Suicide bombing
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