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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.
I am sorry what is happening in pakistan, however with the current state of Pakistan, I am happy that we bangladeshis went a seperate way.
I would squarely blame the government of pakistan who is letting the country get into this kind of turmoil
Dear Fellow Pakistanis.
To me It was Pakistan’s Mumbai but lets praise our security forces that how they defeated the gunmen in “just eight hours.” This attack may finally persuad Pakistani Nation that this is our own WAR and i’m sure and GOD willing we pakistanis can WIN it!
The “highly-educated” person quoted below is definitely not writing from Pakistan, hence his advice to carpet bomb the “uneducated” lot!
“Khan Yousuf says (March 30th, 2009 at 9:02 pm) ….. My advice to the educated class – get out of Pakistan. Pakistan now is like Iraq- bombings every week. Get out and let someone come in carpet bomb entire regions of these islamofacists.”
What a deep sadness of this savage attack happened in my loved city where I lived for a few years when she was beautiful, quiet and peaceful. Damn all those terrorists! Condole with all victims on this savage attck. Wish all their beloved families……could be good. God be with you, we Chinese with you!
All I would like to say is that Pakistan must erase the thought that Indians always want to deciminate Pakistan. This is simply not true. Pakistanis while practicing their faith as they wish must hope to have good life style, economy and enjoy peace and prosperity. Once you are able to practice the faith of choice why should Taliban or others should dictate how you should govern the nation?
I always believe you cant bend a tree when it has grown up. Pakistanis should change their curriculum of hate against India and its citizens. Can’t pakistan fight for Kashmir peacefully?
Terrorism has forced the people of Kashmir to respect india and hate Pakistan. Pakistan has effectively lost kashmir and its respect.
Change the mindset of today’s children and you’ll have a better future…
We must follow Islamic Principles.Firm believe on Allah can only help us to overcome all our problems.
I can’t believe that even after all this people are talking about Khilafat and Sharia as the solution. Wake up! Mixing up religion and politics lies at the root of the problem.
It’s time to stop discussing these medieval practices and start thinking about a secular form of government that provides peace and justice for all.
To aziz dar ( below)- young jihadi …
You know that sharia law you so love –won’t have you converse in English, let alone allow you to use the blogs or the internet.
And I see that we continue to blame the US govt for this from some here. Let’s see – did the US govt train terrorist in Pakistan? Did they provide the logistics for 911 attacks? Prior to that the US govt was funding Pakistan and had no issues with it.
ISI and so called father of the Nuke bomb in Pakistan, started all these terror camps or leaking of dangerous technologies that made Pakistan a pariah state in the international community. The white man is superior because unlike the rest of us , they seem to love their country more.
What a joke- Pak wants Kashmir and it cannot handle mullahs in the NWF. It can’t maintain the sovereignty of its own land and it fights for other lands.
My advice to the educated class – get out of Pakistan. Pakistan now is like Iraq- bombings every week. Get out and let someone come in carpet bomb entire regions of these islamofacists.
I agree there are some so called jihadi-elements which have there own objectives.
But the real culprits are organized groups and secret agencies…they can brainwash and prepare puppets who can blow themselves up and engage in attacks. They are filled with hatred, racism, etc.
I pray to ALLAH to save my country.
I find it appalling to read that this forum and many postings only talk about making Lahore secure? What a shame, I am a lahorite myself and we all should be equally concerned about saving Peshwar, Swat and Dir. This is exactly the wrong mentality that is separating us. I dont care what these ppl say, they are NOT MUSLIMS, and the government should root them out, whether they are in lahore or in Swat. We should love and care for all Pakistani’s. Every city is the heart of Pakistan, not lahore alone. Stop with this stupidity!
These terorists need to be rooted out by force. Force and Force is the only answer.NO NEGOTIATION WITH TERRORISTS” should be our national slogan. The arrested terrorists should be tried in summary courts and executed on spot.
The problem is all our religiuos political parties are not only supporting them but they are there main patrons.When ever the GOVT takes action,these so called leaders come to the rescue of terrorists on various pretext adovocating negotiation with the terrorists.Lal Masjid is one of the example. Every one including the Print and electronic Media was blaming the Governament for not taking action for 6 months when these religious thugs were terrorising people in Islamabad,but when the Govt took action,every one distanced itself and started to blame the GOVT till this moment.
There should be no negotiation with terrorist at all. They need to be killed mercilessly as they kill innocent people in our country.
By negotiating in SAWAT we have created another sanctury for these terrorists where they will openly train and Regroup for further expansion and even in short period of two weeks they have given ultimatum to the GOVT for having the same Qazi courts in Malakand and Chitral although there original demand was only for SAWAT.One leader of a religious party went further in supporting there demands asking the GOVT to have the same kind of Qazi courts through out Pakistan. Now we can see where the roots of terrorism are.
I would like to request the Pakistan Army to take immidiate action and clean our country of these terrorists and their patrons and not leave it to these incapable and greedy politicians who can not see any thing beyond their Drawing rooms and Palaces.
I left Pakistan 17 years ago. I’m from Lahore and miss it terribly. There was a time when Punjabis wouldn’t stand for this type of mayhem. We loved and respected Lahore (not to mention the rest of Pakistan). These terrorists are killing our own in the name of ‘what’???
Its about time everyday people stand up to this behavior. Stop defending them in the name of religion, US or Kashmir. There is NO excuse for this. This is giving Pakistanis a really bad name all over the world. Its a real shame as we have some of the best and the brightest youth. It’s making overseas Pakistani’s ashamed of our own country and culture. We are constantly having to defend these stupid actions.
If these terrorists believe that their beliefs are so right, then why cant they use peace as a weapon? Are they not confident in their own belief that they use this type of violent behavior?
An entry permit for anyone visiting Punjab from NWFP is needed. It may be too late to save NWFP. Let us save at least the heart of Pakistan.
The only solution to recent problems is Khalafat. The system we are dealing with does not fulfill our needs and even does not suits us. Injustice and government of culprits in this country is the only cause of this situation. We need to change our minds to a bright future with a bold step of Shariah and islamic rule. Long live pakistan, long live Muslims. Ameen
It has been said many times that these terrorists are doing these acts on the name of religion. NO religions can possibly support these kind of acts. These people are not even humans, not to mention muslims.
I think the question raised by the Govt today is a very important one: Who is providing arms and support to these outfits?
The most embarrassing aspect for the authorities is the lack of any conclusive investigations following these incidents time and time again. All efforts should now be focussed on providing resources to the invloved authorites so that we can get to the bottom of who is behind these acts.
Lahore Attack Done By Uzbek Terrorists at http://www.pakspectator.com
I feel sorry for innocent police trainies/officers who had dreamed of better future for themselves and their families.
Pakistanies are our neighbours(we share our language and social moments in joy and sorrow) and they should be supported during these tough times.
Lets get together and defeat these enemies of humanity.
Strong Pakistan is good for the world.
Actually talks are easy rather then practice.
and DAWN giving you this opportunity.
that’s why we can only give “Comments”
unfortunately we don’t know about our Religion too much.
more over Media is also showing you Selective images….that’s why…?
so Called Terrorist are responsible for everything or PAK ARMY and ISI, who is fighting our own ppl for the Sake of “PEACE” and handing over Afia Siddiqui to USA for the sake of “WAR ON TERROR”…?
we should try to forget the Nationalism and think about ISLAM.
As Pakistani Nation, we have to accept the fact that there is a problem. We as a Nation have not accepted the fact that there is a problem. No one until today has worked on finding the root cause(root cause is glaring in our faces, but we ignore it) for the mess we are in. All our solutions have been bandaids. We have to contain and than find long term solutions. It is very easy to blame Talibans or Al-Qaida. Why have we not elimated them until now, we have consumed billions of dollars, but they are increasing in number every day. Trust me folks, no one will solve our problems, we as a nation have to get up and clean our own mess. The day we stop asking the world to solve our problems and stop begging, start solving our own problems things wont change. Keep Religion out of it as Pakistanis have dis-serviced Islam to the max
i know our politician will now blame india. we first have to look in our own house. when isi trained LeT in 91 narasimha rao the indian pm had said that one who plays with fire will one day get burn himself. terrorism will surely destroy pakistan one day. not only we have lost kashmir, we will now lose our entire country. i weep for my country and the paths it has followed.
Prassad from india:
On behalf of all Pakistan, thank you for your message.
Inshallah we will wipe out this menace of terrorism. everyone must understand they have no nationalities –they dont know borders. They feel no shame! They lack even the most basic human emotions.
God bless Pakistan
Its ridiculous to call in the army again, if you were not asleep for the past 8 years or so, it is actually the meddling into politics and every sphere of life by the army that has brought about this day and unfortunately there seems to be no end till the end of this so-called war on terror which has killed much much more innocent people than culprits…its eating us day by day…jihadis, mullahs, madrassahs or whatever…we were not faced with such things way back in 1999 till we had not given into this war on terror led by US. What do you get when you occupy a country? Afghanistan or Iraq…or assist in its prolonged occupation….? War is brought to your home…Every such event is a clear resounding reminder that we need to set our foreign policy aright…excuse ourselves from this war waged yet again by western governments, and be neutral in the conflict.We surely don’t want a piece of it…not politically, socially, economically or religiously.This is a menace…Worse yet…it depicts that Pakistan is ungovernable and should be ‘assisted’ by outside forces for its nuclear safety. It doesn’t say that the policy-makers (if its still being done in Pakistan for the past 8 years) are a pathetic bunch.
These terrorists seem to be of Afgani origin given that most of those found spoke Pashtu. The Taliban is slowly spreading deep into Pakistani territory. The SWAT valley is another ticking timebomb waiting to blow up in Pakistan’s face 4-5 years from now.