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On Monday, terrorists used machine guns and grenades to launch a savage attack on a police training academy in Manawan, leaving 15 policemen dead and 150 injured. Eyewitness accounts estimate some 20 militants carried out the attack and that at least 11 explosions were heard through the course of the morning.
This attack comes on the heels of the militant attack against the Sri Lankan cricket team, which occured on March 3, 2009. Before that, the penultimate day of the World Performing Arts Festival was marred by three explosions on November 22, 2008.
Why is Lahore increasingly the target of terrorist attacks? Does the ongoing political tussle in the Punjab have any relation to the security situation? Who is responsible for ensuring the safety of Lahore’s residents? How can the Walled City be secured against terrorist attacks?
Are you in Lahore? Are you or anyone you know close to the police academy? If yes, please share eyewitness accounts from Manawan with Dawn.com.
Hi,
I am a first time blogger to this site. I dont understand one thing that we all the know the problem and solution too. but we dont do anything, it means fault is in us.
Here the topic is itself irrevelant, how can u ask to save Lahore ( The cultural Heritage of Pakistan ) if 1/2 of Pakistan is burning. Pakistani Officials will not accept their mistake and will simply point fingers on others. and more over I think its the fault of Pakistani people that they have choosen such politicians ( again and again ). There is scene in movie ” The Day after Tommorow “, where the Hero of the movie tries to burns BOOKS in order to keey himself warm, then the people around him criticise him for burning BOOKS ( Source of knowledge ) then that actor says the knowledge is of no use if we dont apply it. Same case is there in Pakistan, people — they know the problem, but they dont take a firm action against it.
God bless the people who have been killed in this attack. Please wake up now…
These kinds of attacks are not new for us. We are bearing the fruit of 1.5 billion dollars which are pledged by US government to make the cost of our thousands of military and civilians lives. America has found our lives the cheapest ones on the surface of earth. They have found Pakistan as a forest to prey human lives. Where a shooter preys and pays royalty to the government same is happening over here.
Pakistan today needs heroes who can act selflessly for Pakistan and eliminate first the scourge of corruption which is the feeder of terrorism. National heroes (they can be ordinary men or women) must inculcate the habit of scientific education amongst children of their locality without bias against anyone except the social evils. Pakistan first should be the slogan on everybody’s lips and spirits. Shun the path leading to division and subjugation. Be a beacon to others to follow in the righteous path, not burdened by the old stigmas and dogmas. Become capable to take Pakistan to the forefront of technology and versatility. Only then Pakistan can shine with all its citizens holding their heads high. Go for it.
Dear Sir,
Resolving disputes and making Lahore or Pakistan a safe place by the Pakistani Government is out of question. Reasons:
Hardcore Elements, some of which might be in the Pakistani Government, dont want to realize that nothing is going to be gained by murdering fellow human beings be it Muslims or Pakistanis or non muslims and that they have to give up their policy of supporting this Jihadi Culture.
It is a time to take a back seat and think on what Pakistan is doing and what is good in the interest of Pakistan.
A Terorist is a Terorist and he do not have any religon. We should be closing down all the terorist camps or this demon is surely going to eat all of us.
In case if we do not have sufficient skills in this then we should be taking help of any other country in the world including India.
Otherwise I am sure we soon will be in a situation where Afghanistan is currently.
Dear Sir
It is better to say how save Pakistan not only Lahore secondly I want to mention you that Pakistan ISI have done in Afghanistan as that country is the land of Shohada and Salehin
It is the revenge of Allah that now happened in Pakistan as soon as Pakistan stop its intervention in Afghanistan the peace will come to Pakistan soon Insha Allah
coming over to the answer to the question as to how Lahore can be secured against terrorist attacks, i would like to say that we are no less than anybody when it comes to intelligence…..the thing that is required is the ultimate effort in utilising our resources which include we ourselves as well!! all of us must realise that we are in a state of war aginst this evil…so lets get united like we did when it came to the restoration of judiciary!!! the first and foremost effort towards all this must be the come-back of political government by lifting the governer’s rule in the province.
Dear Friends in Pakistan,
Sorry for the real worst situation out there. Ppl out here are really feeling bad for the neighbour nation. innocent citizens .. brave police personnel are losing life.
Educated people. wake up.. give your children .. a secure nation to grow .. live and prosper.
Forget abt politics.. be a self motivator..
work with community fellow ppl and educate them to wage war against terrorism.. !!
what is this jihad…. god has created us to live and let live..
muslims.. hindus.. christians..jews ..
what difference it will make..when you kill your fellow human beings…
build a nation…mates…
no one this world feels that pakistan is safe nation…
Good fences make good neighbours
–Robert Frost
coming over to the answer to the question as to how Lahore can be secured against terrorist attacks, i would like to say that we are no less than anybody when it comes to intelligence…..the thing that is required is the ultimate effort in utilising our resources which include we ourselves as well!! all of us must realise that we are in a state of war against this evil…so lets get united like we did when it came to the restoration of judiciary!!! the effort towards all this must be the come-back of political government by lifting the governer’s rule in the province!!!
We need to take preparedness more seriously. We are at war against these people who want to harm us. I personally think there is a lot of meddling going on by certain ‘nearby’ countries –which want Pakistan to suffer. But we also have people inside of our country who are willing to disturb peace of their own country.
This must stop. We must boost the capabilities of our police intelligence. It is ironic that they hit a police academy. This should be a clear message that in future we shall not back down. Our police must be prepared to deal with these scum.
Mashallah we have a beautiful country. But we must unite during these difficult times. Such attacks were unheard of in the past –especially Lahore.
It is time to differentiate between friend and foe. It is time for every individual to assume the role. Keep your eyes open, and remain vigilant. But dont ever lose faith. Work hard for the country. United we stand.
Death to all the enemies and ill-wishers of Pakistan.
PAKISTAN ZINDABAD.
May Allah protect us and our country.
The answer is not simple but among other important tasks the main should be to allow the security forces do their work especially the police. Instead of bringing politically motivated heads, we need professional people.
Another important thing is the political stability. If you allow the elected people to work, they have a responsibility and now the chosen people only have to please their masters and they have no responsibility towards people. So let the political governments do their jobs but keep the politics away from the professionalism.
Moreover, intelligence should be the main weapon in this kind of war and police and other security agencies should be trained to meet these kinds of situations as well as they should be provided with modern search, surveillance and fighting equipments.
Dear All,
the best thing for this region would be pakistan and india coming to some agreement over kashmir…
and less of both the armies are needed at the borders.
which in turn can be used in a much more proactive way against these crazy people.
Govt. of pakistan as well as people of Pakistan should understand and admit the fact that these mindless demons, whose only aim is to kill the normal people of Pakistan and India are terrorists and not preachers (clerics) of religion. So, protest them with full force and unrest till they vanish from your country, from your mind and from your society. These evil force are not at all good for any civilised society. Think, whether they follow the preaches of their faith. No they don’t. In the name of Jehad they are just doing of their minds. They enjoy the power of guns. They terrorise people and this satisfy them as they feel they are the supreme powers even Govts, countries can not fight with them. And somehow this is a truth unless people will stop sympathizing with these monsters or they will gulp not You and us but whole of humanity.
So, just do this favour to the mankind by not supporting their cause and remain vigilant to identify these evil of the society. Don’t afraid and let not them take over our world.
Situation in Pakistan seems completely out of control. Just on Friday, a mosque in NWFP was blown to pieces while it was crowded with worshippers. The attack on Sri Lankan cricket team and now this. Considering that Pakistan is a nation with nuclear missiles, the rest of the world is totally concerned about the situation, worried whether Pakistan could even survive as a sovereign nation.
Firstly, the issue is Pakistan wide. If we look at it from a strictly metropolitan angle then it will not be resolved and any steps taken would merely be preventative and not cure the issue.
Secondly, Lahore is the only major city in Pakistan that due to a peaceful recent past is not properly manned with security forces. Hence the easy target.
I guess, after all this, Pakistanis and our agencies should realize that tolerance and non violence are the way to go. We need to change our curricula to stop teaching hate and bigotry to our youth, it adds up, compartmentalizes and is eventually converted into our lives in this manner.
I would partially agree with Mr. Omar but like to add that public opinion in Punjab with regards to the war on terror is not very clear. This is because of the leadership of Punjab, which constitutes one major political party of the country, hasn’t taken the clear stance in this regard. In Punjab most people are still thinking that this is not their war. But what they failed to realized is that they have to fight, whether to Al Qaeda/Taliban or the west. Both are bends upon to fight their war on Pakistan’s soil. Cant we see??? the attackers are in the streets as well as in the skies of Pakistan but we as a nation are in deep slumber and still thinking that it is not our war.
I appeal to the leadership of this poor country to set-aside their differences and come up with the joint strategy to cope up the growing menace of terrorism and extremism. Sooner it would be better may be the outcome and delay will strengthen the devils.
The more these terrorists (insider or outsider) oppress on the people of pakistan, the more united the nation becomes against them.
These are the testing times for the whole nation and I am confident that the nation will emerge with more strength and be more united. A time will sure come when the demon will be identified and marginalized and then this Nation will take take its revenge and that will be far bitter and long lasting.
Need of the time is that as nation, we stick together back-to-back.
If police is unable to protect its own premises, how could it protect an ordinary citizen of Pakistan??
When the same happened in india your govt denied it and instead of punishing them your govt supported them and tried to close geo tv etc and all the medias who really gave a fair news. so better come out of the denial mode and ensure that your ISI will never repeat the same mistakes.Whenever anybody sows the seeds of inhuman things for attaining the personal benefits and vote bank they revolt back against the person one day.so this is not a big thing. better clean up your democracy, deal with the fundementalists mercilessly,and try to improve the infra structure by providing education and all the basic amenities. If these thing are not done immediately then very soon your pakistan will become like a somalia or afghanistan.
We can have a peaceful country if we abolish all our law enforcing agencies and particularly the secret/intelligence ones. I believe, these agencies, if not directly involved in most of what is happening in Pakistan (and may be outside), are totally incapable, useless and far from the capabilities that we poor Pakistani expect of them. I hope we all realize soon that the real threat is not RAW, CIA or Mosad, its our own secret agencies that will cause the maximum damage to Pakistan.
I think it’s not the matter of Lahore only… All Pakistan is suffering with same threat…. We need a powerful government instead of checking one by one as individual… Whenever some thing happens like today incident our government announce high alert after that… what is the job of Security agencies. .. To be high alert after dozens of innocent are being killed….
What is needed now is for the media and the public to put greater pressure on the government and security establishment to prevent these sort of security failures from ocurring – and recurring. That would entail an end to all the ridiculous finger-pointing at India and other ‘outside’ sources – it must be acknowledged that this problem exists within our country itself. Too long have we been in denial that these extremists are not only enemies of the ‘West’, but our enemies too. And if the media can pressurize Musharraf into stepping down and Zardari into reinstating Chaudhary Iftikhar, then it can play a vital role in jolting the higher-ups out of their current stupor.
We need to rise as nation, well over our personal strifes and interests. ‘Human Intelligence’ should be the order of the day; people fully backing the government with knowledge, wisdom, vigilance and unity, and the government assigning full support in letter and spirit to the ISI and Armed Forces of the country. The media, emissaries, diplomats and special delegations must strongly speak of Pakistan’s case in the historic perspective and present situation. The land and air passage given to India for access to Afghanistan be immediately stopped, war alert be declared, and special prayers be offered seeking blessings and help from God the All Mighty to save the honor and sovereignty of our most beloved motherland. Welfare and Sovereignty of Pakistan is of paramount importance for the world, particularly for the region and the West, take my word for this.
It would be extremely good if we ask Lashkar – e – Toiba to conduct an operation there and release the hostages. This will at least echo some voice that they were not involve in Mumbai attacks for which LeT was allegedly blamed.