Pindi, Islamabad suffer 28 suicide hits in 28 months

LAHORE: The twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been struck by the deadly human bombs 28 times during the last 28 months since the July 2007 Operation Silence carried out by the Pakistan Army against the fanatic clerics of Lal Masjid in the heart of Islamabad, killing 431 innocent people and injuring 1074 others.

Hundreds of highly trained and equally equipped Special Services Group (SSG) commandos of the Army had carried out the 2007 operation to eliminate what had come to be known as the Lal Masjid Brigade, led by Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, the pro-Taliban extremist cleric of the Red Mosque in the federal capital. The operation ended up in the death of over 100 people, including commandos, terrorists, students as well as civilians. And although it was a successful military action, sounds from the gory ending continue to reverberate across Pakistan in form of the ongoing spate of suicide attacks in almost every nook and corner of Pakistan. It was the aftermath of the Operation Silence that the dangerous trend of suicide hits, specifically targeting the security forces, touched alarming heights.

Figures compiled by the ministry of interior show that of the 28 bloody incidents of suicide bombings targeting the twin cities, 16 took place in Islamabad while 12 occurred in the garrison town of Rawalpindi. Eight incidents of suicide attacks took place in the twin cities in the six months of 2007, seven occurred in 2008 while 13 such bombings have already taken place in the first 11 months of the year 2008 [till December 4]. Of the 431 people killed in the 28 attacks carried out by the human bombs in the last 28 months, 274 were civilians, 69 were army men, 53 were policemen, 30 belonged to the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), eight of them were the Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel while two belonged to Pakistan Navy.

A total of 147 people were killed and 363 injured in Rawalpindi and Islamabad in the six months of 2007 in eight incidents of suicide bombings following the July 2007 Lal Masjid operation. Those killed included 36 army men, 13 policemen, 30 staffers of the ISI, eight members of the Frontier Constabulary and 81 civilians. In the year 2008, a total of 126 people were killed and 337 injured in seven incidents. Those killed included 29 policemen, 12 army men and 85 civilians. In the first 11 months of 2009, 158 people have been killed and 374 injured in 13 incidents of suicide bombings that have taken place in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Those killed included 21 army men, 11 policemen, two staffers of the Pakistan Navy and 124 civilians.

The eight suicide attacks of the year 2007 took place in the twin cities on July 17, July 27, September 4, October 30, November 24 (two incidents), December 10 and December 27 [which killed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed]. The seven 2008 suicide attacks took place on February 4, February 25, April 3, June 2, July 6, September 20 and October 9. This year’s 13 incidents of suicide bombings [till December 4]took place on March 16, March 23, April 4, June 6, July 2, October 5, October 11, October 20, October 25, November 2, December 2 and December 4.

On average, 15 people have been killed in suicide attacks in the twin cities every month since July 2007. The weekly average for the killed ones during the same period comes to four persons. The number of the suicide attackers killed in those 28 incidents stood at 36. The December 4, 2009 bloody fidayeen attack targeting the parade ground mosque in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, which left 44 people dead, was the latest in the series. A serving major general of the Pakistan Army, a brigadier, two lieutenant colonels, a major, 17 innocent children and several soldiers were among those killed in the multi-pronged fidayeen attack. The gory episode eventually came to an end after two attackers blew themselves up inside the mosque premises.

Investigations by the Pakistani intelligence agencies have shown the involvement of several kinds of jehadi groups in the ongoing spate of suicide strikes including the Lal Masjid Brigade (LLB), Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Harkatul Jehadul Islami (HUJI), Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Jamaatul Furqaan (JuF), Jaishul-Islami (JuI), Fidayeen-e-Islam (FeI) and Abdullah Azzam Shaheed Brigade (ASB). The human bombs coming from the Lal Masjid Brigade are those who had either been linked with Lal Masjid or Jamia Fareedia or had sympathies with the fanatic Ghazi brothers due to their ideological affinity. While some of the human bombs had been the students of the Ghazi duo (Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi), some were the relatives of those killed in the Lal Masjid operation, as had been the case with an 18 year old bomber who killed 22 commandos of the Special Services Group of the Army by targeting their Tarbela Ghazi mess, 100 km south of Islamabad on 13 September 2007. The bomber eventually turned out to be the brother of a Jamia Hafsa girl student killed during the operation, carried out by the Karar Company of the SSG.

amir.mir1969@gmail.com