Pakistan recently endured a series of bombings, a polio advocate was killed when a bomb went off under his car and a number of lawyers and a judge were killed when a bomb went off in a courthouse. They were able to avert any more bloodshed by arresting two teams of suicide bombers:
TWO more teams of would-be suicide bombers from an organisation linked to al-Qa'ida were arrested in Pakistan yesterday, capping 48 hours of violence.I know I shouldn't be surprised that killers wouldn't have any compunction about using polio vaccines to further their agenda but it still amazes me:
Foreign diplomats in Islamabad were warned to limit travel around the capital after a suicide bomber struck a courthouse in Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province, killing 16 people, including a top judge, and wounding 30 on Saturday.
Abdul Ghani, a government surgeon in the Bajaur region who was trying to eradicate polio, was killed on Friday by a bomb under his car, which was planted by militants who believe the vaccination program is a conspiracy to stunt the population growth of Muslims.
Senior government officials said yesterday that security had been reinforced and the violence was under control.
But Benazir Bhutto, exiled leader of the main opposition Pakistan People's Party, said the country was in crisis because of the military operations in Baluchistan and the rise of the Taliban in tribal areas.
One team of three suicide bombers belonging to the al-Qa'ida-linked and Taliban-supporting Sunni militant Lashkar-e-Jhangvi organisation was seized yesterday after a gunbattle in Karachi.
Another team of three was arrested on a train at Sukkur, in the interior of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital.
"We found explosives, splinters, circuits and jackets used in suicide bombings, as well as jihadi literature on them," a senior police officer was quoted as saying.
Both teams were allegedly part of the suicide-bomb campaign across Pakistan to avenge actions by the country's armed forces in the region neighbouring Afghanistan.
Extremists are using suspicions about the drive against polio in Pakistan -- one of the few countries still afflicted with the disease -- to stir rebellion in tribal regions.And this is interesting considering what is going on in Iraq:
Investigators said the two teams of suicide bombers seized in Karachi and Sukkur were planning to feed sectarian strife with attacks on Pakistan's Shia minority at the end of the holy month of Muharram.
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