Oct 8th, 2008 | Pakistan | 8 Comments
Last night, some terrorists succeeded in planting three time-bombs in the Garhi Shahu area in Lahore, an area that is 4-5 kilometers away from my house. Thankfully, nobody had died until the last update.
I had to turn on the idiot box (after many months) to catch the live report, and was lucky enough to witness the uber-intelligent reporters standing inside the shop that was destroyed. Using their extremely intelligent brains, and standing on top of the scene of the blast without caring about forensic evidence, they decreed that “The bombs were planted to create panic in the common citizens”.
I think they are wrong, and I have an alternate theory. It involves the terrorists’ big boss telling them to → continue reading
Mar 31st, 2008 | Etc | 5 Comments
I was just told that a bomb (or something that looked like a bomb) was found at the reception of National University (aka FAST) Lahore a couple of hours ago, and they will keep the university closed for four days. I haven't verified the news from another source yet, but if this is true, then at this rate, this generation of kids will either graduate a few years late, or will have a degree that does not actually cover the required years of study. On the other hand, the distant learning market looks like an attractive business option.
UPDATE: I just got the verification from two more people - there were phonecalls about two bombs, and apparently the institute has been receiving threat calls the whole week.Surprisingly, there is no news yet about the incident online (its been three or four hours now). The calling party demanded to close the college for a week - I do hope it is an early April's fool joke.
Mar 29th, 2008 | Life, Pakistan, Scifi | No Comments
I started reading Arthur C. Clarke's novel Time's Eye the day before he died. The novel is set in the NWFP, and it is a world where Lahore has been blown up by a nuclear bomb (ouch!). Here's a page from the novel's beginning that reminded me of the recent US missile strikes inside Pakistan:
He had been just four when he had first encountered the helicopters of the west. They had come at night, a pack of them. They flew very low over your head, black on black, like angry black crows. Their noise hammered at your ears while their wind plucked at you and tore at your clothing. Market stalls were blown over, cattle and goats were terrified, and tin roofs were torn right off the houses. Moallim heard, though he did not see it for himself, that one woman’s infant was torn right out of her arms and sent whirling up into the air, never to come down again.
And then the shooting had started.
Later, more choppers had come, dropping leaflets that explained the “purpose” of the raid: there had been an increase in arms smuggling in the area, there was some suspicion of uranium shipments passing through the village, and so on. The “necessary” strike had been “surgical,” applying “minimum force.” The leaflets had been torn up and used to wipe asses. Everybody hated the helicopters, for their remoteness and arrogance. At four, Moallim did not have a word to describe how he felt.
And still the choppers came. The latest UN helicopters were supposed to be here to enforce peace, but everybody knew that this was somebody else’s peace, and these “surveillance” ships carried plenty of weaponry.
These problems had a single solution, so Moallim had been taught.
The elders had trained Moallim to handle the rocket-propelled grenade launcher. It was always hard to hit a moving target. So the detonators had been replaced with timing devices, so that they would explode in midair. As long as you fired close enough, you didn’t even need a hit to bring down an aircraft-especially a chopper, and especially if you aimed for the tail rotor, which was its most vulnerable element.
Time's Eye - Clarke & Baxter
Science fiction is not always fiction.
Mar 15th, 2008 | Etc, Pakistan | No Comments
An italian restaurant in Islamabad that had the misfortune to be a popular foreigner hangout was blown up by a planted bomb a few hours ago. You can read all about it on google [link] so I won't regurgitate the facts here, but I just need to get a few thoughts off my chest, that came to my mind after hearing the news.
Firstly, the terrorists are finally getting some common sense and not blowing themselves up - which is bad new for us. Secondly, how come nobody has taken the responsibility for the last few bomb blasts?! Normally, Taleban/Al Quaida etc. rush forward and tell why they did it, but unless I have missed some important news, these attacks are the work of an anonymous peace-hating terrorist entity. Why aren't Al-Quaida/Taleban etc. being blamed explicitly this time? I thought their sole purpose of existence was to take the blame for terrorist attacks, bombings, floods and earthquakes etc. Thirdly, can we please stop "strongly condemn"ing these attacks please, its getting irritating now.
Bell Canada was researching a possible outsourcing setup (which would have turned into a big thing eventually, them being Ma Bell and all) a couple of months ago, but they dropped the idea right after the GPO blast happened. I know of two small software shops whose investors have lost their confidence in Pakistan and are pulling out of here next month - and the security situation played a significant part in driving them out. The last time I saw a similar mass exodus was post-9/11, when Align Technology pulled out of Lahore and left 1000 or so odd people jobless in Lahore, with an expertise that had no other potential employers (virtual orthodontics treatment).
With this latest attack aimed at the foreigners, we won't exactly be attracting more international business, which is a real pity. Perhaps the indian IT industry has hired this new generation of freelance terrorists to push the tiny share of business that comes to Pakistan back into India. Yep, that's one good scapegoat.
We don't need to be bombed back to the stone ages by the US of A, they can save their bombs for Iraq and Afghanistan. We are a self-sufficient nation and will gladly do the job ourselves TYVM.
Mar 12th, 2008 | Death, Pakistan | No Comments
My son will not go to school today, or tomorrow. When we discussed this in front of him today, he immediately said, "Coz there is a bomb".
The school administration have received specific bomb threats and have decided to keep the school closed for the next two days. Of course, the topic must have been discussed in front of him at school, which is how he knows 'there is a bomb'.
I don't see how closing the school for two days will help, they might as well close the school for two months, or better yet, two years. There have been threats before the elections, and I am sure there will be lots of threats in the future as well.
I don't blame the school for being paranoid, as it is one of the better schools of Lahore, and so, a lot of my son's classfellows are sons and grandsons of active politicians and police officers. All I (or the other parents) can do is to blame our government, which, in turn, blames the usual suspects , who blame the USA and so on… I'm sure that if my son could, he would blame me for making him live in a country where kids become 'collateral damage', and have to sacrifice their lives and education for some one else's war.
Congratulations my terrorist 'brothers', you have succeeded.
