Pakistan: Aftermath of 18th October bombings

The bomb blasts in Karachi on the 18th October, killing and injuring scores of political workers and security personnel accompanying Benazir Bhutto’s procession as it headed towards Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s mausoleum where she was to address her supporters, after returning from exile, spent in order to avoid facing corruption related charges, are likely to have deeper and far reaching consequences for the nation of Pakistan than any other acts of terrorism previously committed on its soil.

It is most significant to bear in mind that apparently the bombs do not seem to have been detonated remotely, whilst either being planted roadside or in one of the numerous vehicles that accompanied her in the vast motorcade. According to security services, the devices seem to have been operated by suicide bombers, who chose the moment to blast themselves away along with several others around them at a time when Bhutto was not even exposed to lethal shrapnel that is the main killing component used in such bombings. Instead this was done at a time when she had just retired to the specially created room catered for her needs on-board the armoured vehicle, impenetrable to shrapnel from explosive devices.

Moreover, it is also inconceivable how preceding her return from exile, a seemingly seasoned politician such as Benazir Bhutto with her mentors in Capitol Hill and Whitehall, could make insensitive statements involving the father of Pakistani nuclear bomb, A.Q. Khan and others indicating that US forces would be allowed to operate from within Pakistani territory, thus evoking an angry response from Islamic militants and conservative tribesmen pledging acts of retribution against her and her supporters, which allegedly materialised in the form of the attacks on her motorcade of 18th October. With regards her policy statements to the press, it does seem a farfetched idea that she simply buckled under the pressure of probing questions by foreign journalists on more than one occasion involving these topics.

The swift condemnation of the attacks on Bhutto, from the US State Department, British and EU officials and even the UN high-ups, when their response to even more lethal attacks elsewhere in the country have largely gone unnoticed, further fuel the notion in the minds of ordinary Pakistanis that instead of coming back as a leader aspiring to unite the people of Pakistan, she is increasingly being seen as a candidate being heavily and blatantly backed by the West to influence the political set-up of Pakistan, and to rearrange the deeply religious character of the country to turn it into perhaps another secular Turkey.

This recent act of barbarism seems to be a pre-orchestrated and calculated move, not necessarily aimed at assassinating Benazir Bhutto but to create an atmosphere in the country, which would firmly pitch the so-called secular moderates against the determined religious right. The defeat of one would not necessarily result in the victory for the other, whether in the aftermath of the forthcoming general elections, which might complete the desired moderate minded "Troika" as mentioned by President Musharraf in the recent past or in the aftermath of the firm military actions being undertaken to clear area of militants in Waziristan and settled areas such as Swat, which does not have the wholehearted support of the populace.

Sadly, it also seems that this may very well herald the start of a long drawn battle in the form of a bloody civil war that will be fought out not only on the streets of Pakistani cities, town and villages, but simultaneously as a conflict of hearts and minds, splitting families, friends and neighbourhoods along the lines of religious belief with either rigid or liberal interpretations thereof, and for a desire to live in a secular Pakistan, which happens to be a war cry for some, and clearly an insult to the others.

The forthcoming turmoil in Pakistan due to all of this wrangling might even become a significant part of a sequence of pre-planned historic events which could result in the redrawing of national boundaries in the Near East, starting from northern Kurdish Iraq in the west, down to Pakistan, which might potentially face another 1971-like scenario, in the east. This would result in new states emerging on the face of this planet, from within the existing somewhat unnatural state boundaries. These states could then prove themselves to be easily manageable by such ulterior forces that are busy shaping their geography, and would be manipulated effectively in order to achieve certain strategic objectives based on their geo-political placement and the presence of natural resources, so very needed to sustain the economic and political dominance of one over the other.

Also see: http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/06/1833899
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