I can not believe in an 1,000-kg-anything let alone an 1,000-kg bomb...
the oft-repeated postludes just won't work anymore. is this our penance for the systematic cleansing being carried out under our watch in the tribal belt? a life is a life, a pakistani a pakistani, and the hundred being killed and maimed anywhere breaks your heart, hardens your soul.
its time for us to bring in some serious heavy-duty CIA/other-scary-agency trained officials to regulate the security plans of our country. how does a militant outfit get away with having 1,000 kg of explosives? i'm thinking its not something one can easily concoct with pipes, drain cleaners and the internet in a kitchen. with security cordons growing larger and stricter, the result is a need for bombs that are bigger, fatter, more-potent. is this the future of our country? larger layers of security and even larger bombs to penetrate them?
we need heavy screening, regulation of materials, a tighter control on the influx of goods and people. a journalist said that intelligence had already been alerted early in the day that a oil tanker armed with explosives was to hit in Islamabad - which meant that the security of the city was tightened, hospitals on alert, the city vigilant. oh but just one small error: it was a large van and not an oil tanker. boom. one small error, one big mistake.
i wonder if the terrorists had maneuvered the fire, or are rejoicing at the externality of more charred, burning people.
i wonder how a terrorist feels after seeing his handiwork on live television. do they congratulate each other? do they thank God for the holy mission that has been accomplish to burn the infidels down to the ground? do their hearts not tremble even in the slightest?
i now no longer think of people who wish to leave, as selfish or weak. this country has failed to provide security to its people, be it in the forsaken havens of the Durand line, or in the belly of our capital. who would intentionally want to put their family, children, parents in that kind of precariousness. is life worth gambling over may-bes and may-be-nots?
and ofcourse, on days like these, there's always one image, one scene that burns at the back of your brain, a token of the tragedy to keep always - that comes back to you later on, always. like the young man who was flailing on the pavement, like a fish out of the sea, a limb severed, sobbing over the silenced newscaster..
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I was on this issue just yesterday. Asked my mom whether she would wish to leave if this country goes to war. Her answer was a prompt no. On that, I asked her why she migrated from east Pakistan when it was being separated. On that she said that she was and is a Pakistani....not a Bengali.
I guess it comes down to this. You cannot blame people for leaving. But in my opinion, ideologies have far more significance than lives. Any sense of security that people may get in a foreign land is superficial; nullified by a single accident or such. But nationalism is something we can hold on to.
I honestly cannot think of how this should be countered. This incident has thoroughly exposed the loopholes in our system.
patriotism and nationalism are throughly honorable ideologies, but not ones everyone should be expected to ascribe to. ask the people of bajaur if they still feel patriotic, ask the families of the victims of yesterday. it's easy to comment for us who remain unaffected. that was basically my point - we've reached a point where we can no longer judge others. the "fallacies" we once pointed out are fallacies no longer, they are just bare human fears..
//But nationalism is something we can hold on to//
no offence but that induced an insuppressable urge to yawn..
//The simplest Surrealist act consists of dashing down into the street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly, as fast as you can pull the trigger, into the crowd.
Andre Breton, Second Manifesto of Surrealism//
it may sound out of place but the surrealistic beauty of a suicide bomber neva fails to impress me...an unsure thanatos not willin to go down in the dark lonely cave of oblivion alone, thus the love for his victims. twisted? its a dali canvas ,artaud cruelty and beckette's absurd script cum to life ..things wont be gud and cherry coloured otherwise .trust me ...the craters around the sun enlarge ,the city dumps fill the mad houses fill ,.. i aint a doomsday prophet and u knw that 's the sad thing ...there are no prophets ..the epiphenomena that man iz destined to perish ..
its a slow but assured descent into chaos. and no one can stop this, not me ,not u , and least of all an ideology..
I agree. I can comment on holding on to these ideologies because it is still convenient for me to do so. We are all still on the sidelines thankfully.
I agree also that we are all enroute to a slow and assured descent into chaos. And even though an ideology or an individual may not stop this; that still does not nullify its importance. The way I see it, every other aspect of our life is too fickle and frail to hold on to. Ideologies on the other hand can be strong and absolute.
i'm usually very 'to each his own', but the idea of pointing out "beauty" in a suicide bombing is disturbing and disrespectful on many levels. this is crude, harsh reality folks, your country is in the midst of dark dark times, where poor, miserable outcasts of society are haggled into mass-murder. how about we all sacrifice a family memeber or two to such occurences and then see how 'beautiful' it is.
i'm sorry, just venting - but there is poetry and then there is macabre.
//sacrifice a family member or two...//
ahh the selfish meme , vent sum more but for me altruism has a survival value ,nuthin more. jus go thru a random assortment of xtinct species ,the furry ones the ones without spine and the ones with scales . anthropomorphic eh ? . proly kubric said that the most terrible fact abt the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent. on a cosmic scale the death of man=xtinction of tyrannasaurus rex. no pathos attatched.
u knw what they say love may fail but courtesy will prevail:P so...
my apologies if i offended u ..but i bin tawkin more than necessary, but then again as u said ..to each his own
Raheel, drop the pseudo-intellect. People have died, and no amount of self-indulgent intellectualism will amount to anything but a perceived crudeness and a lack of empathy.
.." perceived crudeness and a lack of empathy...."
lynch me .. but i dun knw ...honestly. i ve seen ppl suffer ..and there is nuthin inherently good/bad abt it .
we live in a value free universe .... yes we do ... trust me... or the chemical imbalance in my brain forces me to think it is so .. i aint no ubermensch and entertain no pretentions but honestly i jus dun knw...lonliness is the basic condition of our/my existence ...its not selfishness ...its the terrible terrible feelin of being alone...in our/my suffering and joy...or proly its the god shaped hole inside us/me ...i hate this mushy bourgeoise lyf that forces us to fake everthing even "empathy" ...i dun knw ...i jus dun knw ..i aint sayin "u" are fakin it ..but its jus so remote from us/me ... ever hugged a sweaty burqa clad no-one lined up infront mayo hospital? ..i dun knw ..i cannot help it ..and trust me i aint comfortable with it.. this this contempt..
My Father is in the top management of Turner Construction in Islamabad. For quite some days, everyone at the office had been asking for the management approval to hold an Iftar Party. My dad had issues, he said he does not want to have an iftar outside, somewhere fancy. He needs his personal space, an iftar is a holy time, he needs to pray. Despite several arguments by everyone he excused himself and allowed everyone to go if they wanted to.
The venue was Marriott and the night was the same fateful night. I went to Islamabad the same night. My dad told me everyones been calling him at Marriott to come and how he excused himself. and Boom. 10 minutes later he gets a phone call.
That was a very scary few hours for me. My mom and dad both were invited, everyone went except them. Thank God, no one died, a lot of injuries, all cars destroyed. Allah ka shukar, all drivers of the office were having iftari somewhere else. What if they HAD gone?
This is SO wrong. I keep thinking what could have happened if they had gone there. I asked my parents to come back to Lahore with me right away. but how is that safer? My parents look down at the thought of me even bringing up issues like your safety is important, since they left East Pakistan too like the mom of Shadow
If you ask me. If I am a father or a husband and I feel my family is unsafe, I might almost go. somewhere safe. They would come first for me. I was so shook that day, it was such a close call.
I just hope everyone's family is safe. May Allah keep everyone safe. No one deserves this. No, No one. Not the elite, not the poor, not the foreign ambassadors, not the corrupt politician's family, or him for that matter.
I went back to Lahore the same night. I was stopped by a dozen police men on the way. Must have been my driver, looks very suspicious. I, ofcourse, respected the need for a full check up. They had no interest in looking for a bomb. They were looking in the shoppers to see if they could score the Hersheys or the Skittles or the Cookies Tin. Laughing and asking, what did you bring for us to eat. Cars are passing by un noticed while you joke to me about what I brought for you in food. and that is literally what he asks within 2 minutes of the check up. and this is the same night of the blast. Unprofessional choro, indifferent to duty choro, look how desensitized they have become. I am sorry but its your JOB to look in the car seriously and not waste TIME joking about FOOD while other cars which should be going UNDER your watch too go by un noticed. AT LEAST wait a couple of days before you start on the same attitude you are SO wonderfully known for in the WHOLE of Lahore.
I really begun to understand what NY must have felt on 9/11. Not in terms of casualties, no. Just the shock and sadness of an incident of this nature going throughout the city and the country. When you have HEARD the sound of the bomb.
Its just really time. For all of us to co operate. We just can not blame each other anymore.
May Allah give us the strength, as a nation, to carry ourselves through this turmoil.
Pacifist, Idealist, Realist, Socialist, Capitalist, Elitist. I don't care. All of the above can still have one thing to stand common on and that is valuing human life. Valuing HUMAN LIFE. FOR GOD'S SAKE.
I can not explain how angry. How ANGRY everyone seems to be, the youth, the friends I know. Maybe if we also know where and how to direct this anger, we can, by Allah's help, get out of this too.
Everyone be well!
P.S: Raheel _|_
"...P.S: Raheel _|_ .."
this is tiring me :s ..i jus finished one retractment and :S..
nyho i ll forgive u this barfu for the number of times u used
"allah / god" in that what-eva-u-wrote
() this the last one sidhra ..trust me ..wont mess up this place ..
arfat, good to know yor mom and dad and their colleagues are safe. what a damn close call...
That was very close. Am glad that all is well now. I dont think there really is any room for faked empathy. I too can not identify with the mentioned intellectualism. However, I do agree on one point.... no matter the circumstances, apathy is still better than hypocracy. I dont think we have the right make to make that judgment though.....either for an individual or for the masses.
Reacting through fears can be totally understood and justified at such a turbulent stage. Things are not as black and white anymore I guess. I just hope and pray that this ends.....soon.
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