Another day of terror

Terror revisited Lahore on Sunday; what was supposed to be a happy day for a lot of people due to Easter turned into one of the goriest ones in the history of the city. The suicide bombing at the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in Lahore is reminiscent in many ways of the Army Public School attack in Peshawar. First, there is the shocking fact that this attack seemingly meant to target as many children as possible, with the police saying that the suicide bomber detonated himself near the entrance to a children’s playground. Then there is the massive death toll, with more than 60 people confirmed dead till last reports – a number that will surely rise since more than three hundred others are believed to have been injured. As victims were shifted to a number of public hospitals, and calls for blood donations were made, the tragedy began to sink in. If the APS attack finally spurred the government into action and led to Operation Zarb-e-Azb, the Lahore bombing shows that military action alone will not be enough to tackle a crisis that needs an overhaul of society. Over the last year, we have also been constantly fed the narrative that Pakistan is safer. But the grim reality is that we are not. The National Action Plan is failing. The authorities had been claiming there was a reduction in attacks since the military operation was launched, but even forgetting destructive attacks like the one at the Bacha Khan University, this month has been a particularly violent month with large-scale attacks taking place in Charsadda and Peshawar.

As we have seen with the protests against legislation like the Women’s Protection Bill in Punjab and on the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, even if violence can be contained for a short time, progress will be scant until we tackle the ideology that spurs such hatred. It ultimately doesn’t matter which particular group is behind any particular attack when their message of hate – a message that resonates with far too many people – is the same. We saw the fruits of that hate on Sunday in three of the most powerful cities including the capital. Reports from Islamabad showed that the city’s red zone was breached on Sunday by a mob of thousands on the occasion of Mumtaz Qadri’s chehlum, forcing the government to call in the army. Another mob in Karachi attacked the Karachi Press Club for perceived media bias in reporting on Qadri’s execution. Moreover, while there has been a crackdown on the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi inside Punjab in recent months, there has been too little, too late. The three days of mourning announced by the Punjab government are barely enough to mourn the thousands who have died in Pakistan over the years. It is the growing hatred on display on Sunday that will need to be contained for us to have any chance of peace in the country.