Military hits back after attack on Pakistan shrine

SEHWAN SHARIF: The white marble floor of Pakistan’s famous Sufi shrine Lal Shahbaz Qalandar was still marked by blood yesterday and a pile of abandoned shoes and slippers was heaped in the courtyard, many of them belonging to the more than 70 worshippers who died on Thursday in an Islamic State (IS) suicide bombing.

It was Pakistan’s deadliest attack in two years, the latest of a series of bloody attacks across the country.

Yesterday Pakistani security forces struck back, killing dozens of suspected militants.

With authorities facing angry criticism for failing to tighten security before the bomber struck, analysts warned the wave of violence pointed to a major escalation in militants’ attempts to destabilise the region.

“This is a virtual declaration of war against the state of Pakistan,” said Imtiaz Gul, head of the independent Centre for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad.

Bombings over five days occurred in all four of Pakistan’s provinces and two major cities, killing nearly 100 people and shaking a nascent sense that the worst of the country’s militant violence may be in the past.

A series of military operations against insurgent groups operating in Pakistan had encouraged hopes their leaders were scattered.

“But this has led to a degree of complacency within our civil-military leadership that perhaps they have completely destroyed these elements, or broken their back,” Gul said.

If so, that impression has been shattered by the events of recent days.

Yesterday, outside the shrine in Sindh province, protesters shouted slogans at police, who they said had failed to protect the pilgrims.

“I wish I could have been here and died in the blast last night,” a devastated Ali Hussain told Reuters, sitting on the floor of the shrine.

He said local Sufis had asked for better security after a separate bombing this week had killed 13 people in the eastern city of Lahore, but added: “No one bothered to secure this place.”

Anwer Ali, 25, rushed to the shrine after he heard the explosion and described seeing dead bodies and chaos as people fled the scene.

“There were threats to the shrine. The Taliban had warned that they will attack here, but authorities didn’t take it seriously,” Ali said.

The attacks have once again raised questions about the influence of the Islamic State in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation of 190 million people that has tense relations with its neighbours India and Afghanistan. – Reuters

PICTURE: EPA Devotees clean the shrine of Sufi Muslim Saint Lal Shahbaz Qalander yesterday, a day after a suicide bomb blast in Sehwan, Pakistan.