Lahore bombed again

This time there seems little doubt — a suicide bomber detonated himself near the Arfa Karim IT tower on Ferozepur Road, Lahore, on the afternoon of Monday July 24th. This was not a gas cylinder exploding this was an attack in the heart of the city in what is supposed to be a secure area. The incident took the wind from political sails and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali postponed a scheduled news conference where he was expected to be asked some awkward questions about the current political crisis. He may yet be asked awkward questions about a bombing that at the time of writing has left at least 25 dead and 53 injured, with both numbers probably set to rise.

Political luminaries were quick to tweet their condolences, social media being the platform-of-choice in these connected times. Connected yet distant, a tweet is not a live TV interview on the sharp end of probing questions placed by assertive reporters. Twitter has, at least in Pakistan, become a useful tool for dodging the verbal bullets and politicians make regular use of it. There is nothing as insincere — or as cheap — as 140 characters in the cool of cyberspace.



So far there is no claim of ownership of the blast, and any claim has to be treated with caution anyway. A comment by the Punjab law minister was jaw-droppingly tin-eared as he said that terrorism had been defeated “by 70 or 80 per cent” — which leaves 20 or 30 per cent of an unknown number of well-armed, well organised and highly motivated terrorists on the loose and more than happy to make a fool of anybody like Mr Sanaullah. No matter the successes of the military and the security services — and they are undeniably there — the bomber only has to get through once. An intelligence failure? Perhaps, but even the best intelligence services globally do not spot every bomber en route to the target or in their preparations. What is today written in blood and shredded tissue and broken lives is that the bombers are among us still and there is nothing — nothing — to suggest that they are anywhere close to being eradicated.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2017.

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