Shahan Mufti's Notebook:

Peshawar bombing latest test for a city under strain

A large bomb blast at a five-star Peshawar hotel has killed at least 11 people including foreign nationals, according to local media reports.

I was in Peshawar this past weekend and the city was clearly strained. Peshawar is the major city in the Northwest Frontier Province and a war between the military and Taliban militants is raging all around it. The surrounding areas have also absorbed over a million people who have had to flee the war raging to the north and west of Peshawar. Peshawar has been very vulnerable to a terrorist attack as the Taliban forces suffer losses in their battle with the military.

The Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar is much like the Marriott in Islamabad that was also a target of a bombing last year. Both hotels are owned by a popular Pakistani businessman and real estate developer. The PC in Peshawar was popular with visitors from foreign countries and there are many in the city right now from NGO's who are involved in the relief effort for the millions of refugees of war.

Last week there were reports of the American Embassy's plans for expanding their diplomatic mission in Pakistan. This report claimed that the US mission was planning to buy the Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar as a compound for its Peshawar consulate.

The hotel was in a sensitive area which is administered by the army. The PC is not far from the residence of the top military commander in Peshawar and the city's police chief.

This bombing comes as the government is beginning to feel the heat from the anger and frustration of the millions of Pakistanis displaced by the military campaign and as opposition parties are beginning to criticize the government's decision to expand the military fight to other parts of the country.

Obama's speech: The view from Islamabad

"So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace ... ."

President Obama's words were best understood by the people in this country — literally. Pakistan is one of the largest English-speaking countries in the world, and English is one of the two official languages in Pakistan. I watched the speech this afternoon on CNN International at an older Pakistani couple's house in Islamabad. The husband is a retired university professor and the wife works in the Pakistani bureaucracy. We sipped on English tea in their living room.

"Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments; community organizations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life."

Just as the speech was closing though the clock struck 6 p.m. and the television and the living room went dark. It was disappointing but no one flinched. We just kept sipping our tea. Missing the great crescendo of a potentially historic experience — you don't get too worked up about these things when in a typical day these power outages happen at least half a dozen times. But also when you know that a few million refugees from a war are spending the summer outdoors, driven out of their homes by war.

"As the Holy Koran tells us, “Be conscious of God and speak always the truth.” That is what I will try to do — to speak the truth as best I can ... ."

In the faintly sunlit room, conversation centered around the truth. Did Obama tell the truth? The truth of America's intentions? The truth of his intentions? The truth about involvement in Pakistan?

"Is Osama bin Laden really hiding around here?" the wife asked. "Is that why the American army is here?"

"There can be no reconciliation until there is truth," the husband said quietly.

"No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust," the president continued.

Pakistanis have long been deeply suspicious of America. This suspicion is rooted in the Cold War as President Obama pointed out when Pakistan was used a proxy in the battle against Soviets "without regard to their own aspirations."

But in this latest war that Pakistan and the United States are fighting together, America has also become deeply suspicious of Pakistan and its army. It's become a relationship defined by deep interdependency and deep mutual distrust.

"As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk."

The azaan rang out a few moments after Obama's speech would have ended and I left and went to the local mosque to join a congregation in the afternoon prayer. Time in Pakistan, as in other parts of the Muslim world, is often measured by the azaan or the call to prayer.

"He started with 'aslamalaykum,'" the traditional Islamic greeting, a young man with a thick mustache told me. "And he quoted from the Koran... these are good things," he said with a shy smile.

The seven issues Obama raised didn't appear to have caught many people's attention at the mosque. It was the small gestures, his knowledge of Islamic culture and his willingness to put it on display, his speech peppered with Koranic words, his attention to detail that not only engaged many but also impressed a few.

"It is easier to start wars than to end them," the president went on.

I went to buy an orange juice after the prayer. "He understands us better," a shopkeeper in the mosque-market said as I was paying for my Minute Maid. "But that doesn't change reality. America is at war with us."
 

Lahore responds to deadly violence... by throwing a party

Here's a perplexing update from Lahore...

Two days after one of the worst terrorist bombing in the city's history that killed 30 people and a day after Taliban forces issued a statement urging the citizens of Lahore and a few others locations to vacate their cities, as more suicide attackers are on the way, the people of Lahore have reacted... with a party.

Tonight, the cricket teams from the cities of Lahore and Sialkot played an exciting final game of a national cricket tournament. The Gaddafi cricket stadium (yes, it's named after the Libyan dictator) seats over 60,000 people and it was packed near capacity.

Women, men, young kids and even crying infants were in attendance, along with male cheerleaders playing the traditional "bhangra" beat.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Lahore has recently become a prime target for terrorists.

Back in February, cricket became a target, when the visiting Sri Lankan national side was attacked by gunmen just a few dozen yards from Gaddafi Stadium.

It seems the fans were not completely unaware of the risk they undertook in coming to the game. At the closing ceremony the loudest cheer didn't go to the winning side or even the losing side (Lahore lost at home), but to the security forces. And the last big cheer went to what the Master of Ceremonies called "the lively hearts of Lahore."

The Pakistan team is off to England to play in a world championship tomorrow. The main sports channels is using Pink Floyd's "Shine on you Crazy Diamond" as the theme song for the team.

Bombing in Lahore no surprise

A large bomb went off near a busy crossing in Pakistan's second largest city, Lahore, today. The bombing left at least 23 people dead and several hundred injured according to local media reports. Here's more on the story from Washington Post.

This hasn't come as a complete surprise. It's been a pattern for a few years now: the army turns up the heat on militants in the north and northwest of the country, and these guerrilla groups respond by carrying out suicide bombings in major cities all over the country. The bombings usually tend to push public opinion against the government's security policies.

But there hadn't yet been a major suicide bombing in Pakistan since the army launched its most recent offensive in the north of the country almost a month ago, which has been backed by all shades of political parties and public sentiment.

Lahore, a city of 10 million, has historically been relatively immune to violence, but in the past year or so that's changed and it's become a hot and high profile target for terrorists. Here's a list of terrorist attacks in the city since January 2008.

The bombing in the capital of the Punjab province comes a day after the supreme court cleared Nawaz Sharif to re-enter the political arena after nearly a decade of sitting out. The political heavyweight from the Punjab province is the most popular political leader in the country according to polls.

Sharif's party had long called for more dialogue with the militant groups but had backed the most recent military offensive which appeared to be a silky smooth process before today's attacks. 

Bombing that kills scores sends a mixed message

A suicide bombing at a mosque in the town of Jamrod in Pakistan's tribal areas killed as many as 70 people, according to local media, although Reuters reported 37. The suicide bomber attacked the mosque during the weekly Friday prayers when its two floors were packed. It was the deadliest suicide bombing in Pakistan in months.

An inexplicable act of terrorism on the surface, it's unclear what the message was and the intended audience. No group has claimed responsibility yet. Usually such attacks on mosques are part of sectarian violence between the Shiites and Sunnis. But Jamrod is not a place with a history of sectarian violence.

The terrorist carried out this attack right at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, hours before President Obama announced in a speech a new policy in the war in Afghanistan or "Af-Pak" as the war region is being termed in Washington.

A bomb that can kill 70 people is indication of the presence of people willing to commit suicide and of large amounts of explosives in the region — a message perhaps for President Obama who is about to order thousands more American troops in to the region.

Jamrod is also a a town that most NATO supplies pass through on their way to Afghanistan. A bridge was blown up in the town last month which closed the NATO supply line for over a day. The supply route remains vulnerable to attacks and with thousands more troops coming through this supply line will become all the more important.

The Tribal Areas of Pakistan are a war zone and as the war intensifies with bombings like today's, some in Pakistan are insisting that Pakistan needs to withdraw altogether from "America's war on terror."

So while President Obama stressed the need for deeper involvement with Pakistan in the war in Afghanistan, Qazi Hussain Ahamd, the leader of the Jamat-e-Islami political party in Pakistan came on television taking away this lesson from the bombing in Jamrod:

"It's time that we wash our hands of this war of America's, and withdraw our troops from the tribal areas."

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