Lahore Under Attack
March 27, 2016 2:29 PM   Subscribe

BBC: "At least 69 people have been killed and scores injured in an explosion at a public park in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, officials say. The park was crowded with families, some celebrating Easter. Many victims are said to be women and children. Police told the BBC it appeared to be a suicide bomb. A Pakistan Taliban faction said it carried out the attack. Pakistan's president has condemned the blast and the regional government has announced three days of mourning."
posted by marienbad (61 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
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I can't understand why the Pakistani Taliban and its offshoots so often specifically target children - first the Peshawar school attack and now this.
posted by Aravis76 at 2:37 PM on March 27, 2016 [5 favorites]


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:(
posted by an animate objects at 2:45 PM on March 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Oh man, Lahore is often held up as one of the safe places in Pakistan to visit, I was toying with a trip there last year for a while, supposedly far from Taliban areas.

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posted by Cosine at 2:48 PM on March 27, 2016


We need to do a better job of finding the fat old men with money who are funding this kind of crap.
posted by BrotherCaine at 2:51 PM on March 27, 2016 [24 favorites]


We need to do a better job of finding the fat old men with money who are funding this kind of crap.

I guess so, because it seems clear that what we are doing isn't working at all.

Seeing this news, so soon after the Belgian attacks, and Côte d'Ivoire previously, and so many others before that, makes me feel sick and saddened.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:58 PM on March 27, 2016 [8 favorites]


I can't understand why the Pakistani Taliban and its offshoots so often specifically target children - first the Peshawar school attack and now this.

It's not just them. Terrorist attacks are very often aimed specifically at children. Terrorists wish to cause misery and outrage, and attacks against children are more effective than almost anything else.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:58 PM on March 27, 2016 [5 favorites]


Motherfuckers
posted by clavdivs at 2:59 PM on March 27, 2016 [13 favorites]


It's not just them.
posted by infini at 3:05 PM on March 27, 2016 [5 favorites]


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posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:19 PM on March 27, 2016


The Taliban offshoot which is claiming responsibility says they specifically targeted Christians.
posted by waitingtoderail at 3:24 PM on March 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


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posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 3:26 PM on March 27, 2016


The purpose of terrorism is to cause terror. No better way than to attack the defenseless and innocent. Terrorists have no military value whatsoever. The 9/11 attacks barely show up as a blip on the US economy. Their sole impact is on the opinions and actions of the populace and government. Think of them as the armed wing of outrage journalism...

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posted by jim in austin at 3:28 PM on March 27, 2016 [11 favorites]


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Horrific. If anyone knows how to send aid to the survivors, please post here.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:29 PM on March 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


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posted by valkane at 3:33 PM on March 27, 2016


And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

- Isaiah 25:7-8



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posted by 4ster at 3:36 PM on March 27, 2016 [12 favorites]


We need to do a better job of finding the fat old men with money who are funding this kind of crap.

They're best buddies with the fuckers conducting the war on terrorism.
posted by Talez at 3:37 PM on March 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


They're best buddies with the fuckers conducting the war on terrorism..

Funny you should say that....
posted by IndigoJones at 3:42 PM on March 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


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Pakistan you are in our thoughts and prayers.
posted by newdaddy at 4:18 PM on March 27, 2016


Terrorists wish to cause misery and outrage

Terrorists want to provoke a response; the misery and outrage are just the means. By contrast, when a hypothetical drone-wielding nation kills children, they can be oddly surprised by any misery or outrage that they've created.
posted by Slothrup at 4:38 PM on March 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


Mod note: A few comments removed. It'd be great to not turn this into round one thousand of "okay but let's argue about US military policy instead".
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:06 PM on March 27, 2016 [10 favorites]


Incidents like Paris and Brussels seem to make it easy for Westerners to forget that the Islamists inflict far more damage on Muslims than they do on "the West".
posted by Slothrup at 5:09 PM on March 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


Not "terrorists", not Pakistani Taliban. Fucking Assholes.
At least 69 killed in huge Fucking Asshole attack. Sources suspect these Fucking Assholes were killed, but likely were supported other Fucking Assholes and as long as there are a large number of Fucking Assholes around the world, further Fucking Asshole attacks are anticipated.

In a statement from the Oval Office, President Sanders said, "We mourn with those in Pakistan whose loved ones were killed by these Fucking Assholes. My administration is committed to finding out what makes people turn into these Giant Fucking Assholes, eliminating the root causes of becoming an Asshole, and hopefully leading fewer people to become these kind of Fucking Assholes. With education, compassion, and economic opportunity, in time we will see less blood shed by these Fucking Assholes. History has never been, and will never be, on the side of Gigantic Fucking Assholes. Good night and may God bless all the peoples of the Earth (except the Fucking Assholes).
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 5:20 PM on March 27, 2016 [7 favorites]


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posted by kinnakeet at 5:24 PM on March 27, 2016


"Incidents like Paris and Brussels seem to make it easy for Westerners to forget that the Islamists inflict far more damage on Muslims than they do on "the West"."

I disagree with the forgetful part and concur on the infliction aspect.
posted by clavdivs at 5:37 PM on March 27, 2016


There is no waking from this nightmare. Every week another mass casualty attack somewhere in the world by violent people. We seem unable to find an answer to this cycle.
posted by humanfont at 5:38 PM on March 27, 2016


Incidents like Paris and Brussels seem to make it easy for Westerners to forget that the Islamists inflict far more damage on Muslims than they do on "the West".

Except it was targeting Christian Pakistanis in this case.
posted by Talez at 5:45 PM on March 27, 2016 [8 favorites]


Regarding donations: I would recommend MSF (Doctors Without Borders) and IRC (International Rescue Committee). Donations to Red Cross are not bad, but these two are better, for reasons too long to go into here.
posted by kozad at 5:51 PM on March 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


We need to do a better job of finding the fat old men with money who are funding this kind of crap.

Wahhabism. Saudi Arabia's other lucrative export market. You can toss the UAE in there too.
posted by Max Power at 5:56 PM on March 27, 2016 [7 favorites]


The Middle East, the Muslim world, the rest of the world will get sick of this soon enough. But selling arms there is like selling gasoline at a fire.

May we grow out of this phase, all of us.
posted by Oyéah at 6:47 PM on March 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Seconding Doctors without Borders and the IRC as organizations on the ground who can always use donations.

Many dots for the innocents.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 8:09 PM on March 27, 2016


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posted by Joey Michaels at 8:10 PM on March 27, 2016


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And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8
posted by sallybrown at 8:21 PM on March 27, 2016 [3 favorites]


So tragic. All those devastated families.
posted by torticat at 9:45 PM on March 27, 2016


No words.

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posted by chicainthecity at 10:15 PM on March 27, 2016


I'll have specific leads for help required in the next day or so. Will post as soon as I have it.

This is a park where I spent a lot of weekends as a kid. Picnics with the extended family. Holiday weekends see a huge turnout at parks in general. It's one of the few forms of inexpensive entertainment available. In the 80s, when this particular park was built, ZiaulHaq's military regime was in place. Zia's era is when the islamization process really gained steam in Pakistan. The arts suffered tremendously - heavy censorship, very little funding. The movie industry went into decline - cinemagoing stopped being a viable family outing. So parks were pretty much it. And this one? It had a roller skating rink. It had new swings and new seesaws and lots and lots of space to run around.

I haven't been in many years. But parks are still where families gather on holiday weekends. And children are still most likely to congregate near the swings and slides and seesaws. The Children's Hospital was bedlam last night.

The only good thing I can think of is that the hospitals were inundated with blood donors and volunteers. People I know are taking food for the families who will be at the hospitals.

Sorry, this is very disjointed. I'm not at my best today.
posted by bardophile at 10:18 PM on March 27, 2016 [42 favorites]




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posted by ridgerunner at 12:44 AM on March 28, 2016


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posted by Mister Bijou at 12:53 AM on March 28, 2016


One of my go-tos for matters Afghan, Pakistan, Taliban... Jason Burke: Lahore bombing is faction's boldest bid to stake claim as Pakistan's most violent terrorists
posted by Mister Bijou at 2:19 AM on March 28, 2016


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posted by sukeban at 3:42 AM on March 28, 2016


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posted by Freen at 4:51 AM on March 28, 2016


I heard once that the Indonesian government encouraged their Islamist factions to engage in horrible violence against civilians, as it'd help isolate them and make them no longer a political threat. Ain't finding much with Google now though.
posted by jeffburdges at 6:04 AM on March 28, 2016


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My deepest condolences and sympathy to the people affected by the attack.

Near my home in Jakarta, Indonesia, a group of predominantly muslim high school and college students already created a fundraising program for families left behind because of this attack. They've created social media posters and images and then distributed them in Whatsapp, Line and BBM groups; as a result they managed to raise more than 20 million rupiah (about $ 1600 which might not seem like much, but it's quite big in context) in just one day, and it's still counting up to this evening. These students think of themselves as "Islamists" but they thoroughly refused to be categorized in the same neighborhood as the terrorists and the radicals.

I hope that people remember that this tragedy is not on the hands of muslims everywhere, especially not on the majority of Pakistanis themselves. I'm pretty sure in Pakistan, in the middle eastern countries and everywhere in the world, the proportion of muslims that do good like this outnumber the rest. The distinction matters.
posted by tirta-yana at 6:16 AM on March 28, 2016 [6 favorites]


I'm pretty sure in Pakistan, in the middle eastern countries and everywhere in the world, the proportion of muslims that do good like this outnumber the rest. The distinction matters.

According to Pew (spring 2015), 9% of Pakistani Muslims are okay with ISIS. 62% "don't know". Leaving 28% who condemn them.

Worse than other predominantly Muslim countries by far, but when you consider absolute numbers (192 million souls in Pakistan alone), the pro-ISIS and the Unsure About ISIS numbers are pretty damn unnerving.

Can anyone persuade the 9% to change their minds? I don't know. Can you change the mind of your nutty uncle who's a (Trump, Bernie,Cruz, Hillary) booster?
posted by IndigoJones at 7:22 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


To think about persuading someone is first to try and understand why they hold those views, and that in turn requires a certain compartmentalization of one's own perspectives and goals.
posted by kewb at 7:59 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


According to Pew (spring 2015), 9% of Pakistani Muslims are okay with ISIS. 62% "don't know". Leaving 28% who condemn them.

I have nothing but respect for Pew, but honestly? If I lived in a place where ISIS and/or The Taliban often reach out in this manner, and some stranger with a clipboard asked my opinion, I'm pretty sure I'd be a big "don't know" as well.
posted by valkane at 8:08 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]


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posted by lord_wolf at 8:16 AM on March 28, 2016


What valkane said plus maybe they're just tired of having to constantly condemn to prove their own innocence.
posted by infini at 9:05 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


..................................................................... :(

To think about persuading someone is first to try and understand why they hold those views, and that in turn requires a certain compartmentalization of one's own perspectives and goals.

That's the hard part. Honestly, my reaction to events like these is "this is disgusting and needs to be stopped," but my thinking rarely goes further than that - which is inadequate. Regarding trying to understand why people hold such views, this NYRB piece on the attacks in Brussels does a good job and has many useful insights.

I'll highlight one such here:

Many, many people can feel anger when a Western superpower is bombing a developing country, or be curious about jihadi-Salafi propaganda, or feel injustice based on social and economic discrimination. But why do all these potential motivators affect individuals in such different ways? Why is it that some will keep on struggling to deal with these issues in their personal development, while others throw their whole lives away and pick up arms? Because these influences mobilize their emotions differently, I think. The emotional architecture of an individual is often shaped in the early years of childhood and has to do with the quality of the parental relationship. It affects the way he or she will be sensitive to other influences.

It's worth noting that this is half question, half speculation (though worthwhile speculation). But I think the question posed, Why is it that some will keep on struggling to deal with these issues in their personal development, while others throw their whole lives away and pick up arms? is really important, and one of the key lines of thought to explore. And the speculation resonates with me because (as I've commented previously) I have some really bad influences from my childhood, and it took years of counselling to unravel some of that shit. What if I grew up in a Muslim household, instead of a Christian one? I don't like to think, but maybe having that kind of dysfunctional background makes it a bit easier for me to empathize than people with more functional families.

Besides that though, there's been four fucking attacks within about a week, so analysis-in-retrospect doesn't seem enough. How to prevent? Besides removing budget constraints (Belgium!), there are two other really low-hanging-fruit problems. First is Muslim ghettos existing in the first place. Second is the enormous, glaring lack of trust between Muslim communities and the police/intelligence services. Instead of the usual secret squirrel behavior, which hardly builds trust, why not take the opposite approach? Have intelligence and police employees move into Muslim-majority neighborhoods, not to be assholes, and not always openly, but to a) be good neighbors and directly help people integrate, on a personal level b) see first-hand what is really useful on a policy level. What about appointing spooks, as individuals or groups, to openly advocate for specific Muslim communities and make sure those communities get the resources they need? That goes directly against the spook mentality but it's really hard to build trust when someone thinks you're spying on them. So much for trust, as for not letting ghettos exist - what if, instead of spending spook money on MOAR SURVEILLANCE, spend some of that money buying up property in said ghettos and financially incentivizing non-Muslims to move in? Not government employees necessarily, but the kind and quantity of people needed to avoid those pockets of extremism existing?

This is getting deraily and ranty, so that's enough. But it feels like shit to not be able to do anything.
posted by iffthen at 9:44 AM on March 28, 2016




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And thank you Bardophile for sharing you memories as painful as they are
posted by biggreenplant at 11:15 AM on March 28, 2016


(Or rather beautiful memories of the park now so poignant)
posted by biggreenplant at 11:17 AM on March 28, 2016


Every single attack on our freedom to be human is a crime. I don't even know how to pray any longer, but I grieve for those who died or were harmed

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posted by mumimor at 2:47 PM on March 28, 2016


Hmmm. Terrorism. Disruption. Terrorism. Disruption. Terrorism. Disruption.
posted by telstar at 2:50 PM on March 28, 2016




Re: 62% unsure.

Do remember that Pew poll questions are often very poorly translated into local languages, that ISIS has many names, not all of which are going to be recognized by a lot of people, that literacy rates are very low, that local media reporting on ISIS is extremely limited, and that many people don't trust pollsters. That said, an uncomfortably large number of people are either right-wing bigots or worse. The protest that rosswald's link describes is very frightening to me, in the way that Trump's popularity is frightening. There are actually people on Twitter saying that the women who were at the park should not be protested for, because they should have been at home, not wandering around in public.

The polarization here is frightening. More liberals are getting angry and ready to put their collective foot down, asking for military action. The progressive movement is growing, but still struggling to recover from many many years of repression.

I've grown up being accused of wearing rose-coloured glasses about most issues, but the outlook is increasingly gloomy even for me. I'm at the point where I assume that the big picture is going to get a lot worse before it starts getting better (I can't bring myself to imagine what a lot worse looks like), so I put one foot in front of the other, help the progressive causes I can and try to focus on small scale, long term benefits.
posted by bardophile at 8:48 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


From Chapati Mystery:
Lahore: Marks it Bears II (Lahore Snaps: Marks it Bears, from 2008, can be read here )
posted by bardophile at 12:22 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


For Lahore - a lament with love
posted by bardophile at 1:06 AM on March 29, 2016


"In light of the recent tragic events in Lahore - a city we have come to call our home - the scale and depth of the tragedy has caused us to struggle with how to grieve those whom we have lost and to grieve with those they have left behind.This is a song and video that is very special to those who worked on it with us and has fermented over a long time. We had planned a commercial release for later in the year but in light of the recent events in Lahore, we have decided to share it with you now. It's a song conceived as a lullaby to the nation and a video as an exploration of Lahore's past, present and future. This is for both Lahore and Pakistan, for resilience amidst the darkest of times."
posted by bardophile at 7:28 AM on March 29, 2016 [2 favorites]


Please make this song and its backstory into an FPP, lest it remains buried and unheard here.
posted by infini at 12:46 PM on March 29, 2016


As promised, I am sharing donation info here. This is a trustworthy, small organization, that will make sure aid reaches affectees. I know other people who are handling direct aid, but feel like posting that information is probably inappropriate. I have been given access to a list of the affectees and contact info, also, but have not been given permission to share that information. There are stories that patients are being discharged from the hospitals without having received adequate care. I don't know how accurate those reports are. Some friends are gathering toys and supplies for the kids who are in hospitals. Feel free to memail me for more information.

"How can such evil ever be justified?

The Cecil & Iris Chaudhry Foundation (CICF) reached out to those injured in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal park suicide bomb attack in Lahore.

The dreadful attacks have left lives shattered; there are parents undergoing treatment who have not yet been told that their children did not make it and there are children who have not yet been told that they’ve lost their parents; absolutely heart wrenching.

For now, we are in the process of providing immediate relief to those in hospitals.

We are collecting:
Clothes, dry foods (that can be easily stored), juices, milk etc
Toys, story books, coloring books or then anything that can make these traumatized children smile.

The above mentioned items can be dropped off at our office where we have set up a collection Center 16 C/1-A Gulberg II Lahore from 10.00 AM to 6.00 PM. Monday to Saturday.

For cash donations our bank account details are as follows:

Account Title: The Cecil & Iris Chaudhry Foundation
Account No: 13138796
Bank name: NIB Bank Ltd
Branch: DHA Z Block Branch, Lahore Pakistan
Branch Code 10205
For Overseas Transaction
Swift Code: NIBPPKKA
IBAN: PK66 NIBP 0000 0000 1313 8796

Overseas donations may also be sent through Western Union/Money Gram to the following:

Mr. Aamir Daud
CNIC Number: 35202-2360316-5

For any queries please feel free to contact Mrs. Alyssa Saleem on 04235778031 and Mr. Aamir Daud on 03234399558,

After completing a detailed need assessment we will be working on a long term rehabilitation program; details of which will be shared in due course.

Pakistan Stands United In Pain……."
posted by bardophile at 9:17 AM on March 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


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