Thursday, October 07, 2004
Car Bomb Kills 39 in Pakistan
I need to take a break from election blogging. I've been slighting foreign news, but an item like this is worth mentioning.
A major car bombing in Pakistan targeted a gathering of Sunni Muslims, leading to speculation that it was Shiite retaliation for a bombing in a Shiite mosque last week.
The sectarian character of this is noteworthy - it's important for Westerners to remember that the first victims of fundamentalist terror are often within the same basic faith. Zarqawi in Iraq is making no secret of his desire to kill Shiites. Perhaps, as the article suggests, tensions between Shiites and Sunnis in Pakistan remain low. But events like this can only inflame a dangerous situation - made more dangerous by the haphazard control that the Pakistani government is exerting over militants.
I need to take a break from election blogging. I've been slighting foreign news, but an item like this is worth mentioning.
A major car bombing in Pakistan targeted a gathering of Sunni Muslims, leading to speculation that it was Shiite retaliation for a bombing in a Shiite mosque last week.
The sectarian character of this is noteworthy - it's important for Westerners to remember that the first victims of fundamentalist terror are often within the same basic faith. Zarqawi in Iraq is making no secret of his desire to kill Shiites. Perhaps, as the article suggests, tensions between Shiites and Sunnis in Pakistan remain low. But events like this can only inflame a dangerous situation - made more dangerous by the haphazard control that the Pakistani government is exerting over militants.
