Shia Mosque Bombing Thwarted

Life continues to be curious.  Yesterday I left work around 4:00.  Our new roommate rode with me.  He is still getting his bearings so I asked if he knew about the 4^th entrance to the diplomatic enclave.  He didn’t so I decided to show him.  It’s a bit of a drive as the main entrances face the city while this one faces the small village of Nurpur Shahan, North East of the enclave.  It’s a nice drive through an area vastly different from the rest of this city.  You go through the local bazaar area before turning south on 3^rd Ave toward Murree road.  It was a nice drive, saw donkey carts, many people, cows, goats and horses wandering about.  The rest of my evening was completely uneventful. 

 

 

Then a short while ago, just before 8 AM my phone rang.  It was a guy that works for me.  He was calling me to let me know his flight was diverted.  They should have landed at Islamabad but were diverted to Lahore.  Not only that but they were forced to deplane.  The claimed reason was weather but, while it’s raining right now, it isn’t particularly bad weather.  So I decided to go online and check the news.  Apparently there was a threat and search at Benazir Bhutto airport over 22 hours ago that the authorities are now saying was “training”… doubtful.  The more interesting article was about a thwarted mosque bombing yesterday afternoon.  A heroic security guard got in a shootout with a very well trained suicide bomber at a Shia mosque.  He managed to kill the would-be bomber but was also wounded and died later at the hospital.  This was in the little village of Bara Kahu about 2 miles east of the village we drove through yesterday afternoon.  I’d be lying if I said this was not a bit sobering.  It pissed me off as well.  This sectarian crap is as evil as it gets.  Killing one another because “MY god and kick YOUR god’s ass” or perhaps it’s more along the lines of “YOU are worthy of death because you don’t pray EXACTLY the same way I do”.  No matter, the perpetrators of this crap, the leaders of this evil will burn in hell, or be reincarnated as lowly insects or in some way, no matter your belief, will be punished for their deeds.  I genuinely like Pakistan.  I am greatly disappointed that my ability to travel about and see more of it is being hampered by an evil that plagues the good people of this land.       

AFP Photo, dead bomber next to grenades, bullets, etc.