Update: Juan Cole, a blogger on the Middle East and South Asia has a good analysis of this bombing.
Suicide bombings are human rights violations.
Normally I don’t cover Pakistan (I cover India, Bangladesh and the Maldives for Amnesty USA). But, I just want to do a quick post here to condemn unequivocally the wanton killing of innocent civilians in Lahore, Pakistan today. Suicide bombings that kill or injure civilians are human rights violations and must be condemned.
Lahore is the cultural capital of Pakistan and it has been subjected to repeated suicide bombings by folks who apparently think that killing innocent civilians can be a justified response to the war that they are fighting in Waziristan against Pakistani and US soldiers. It’s not. Here is a description of the scene from the BBC World Service:
“I sensed real danger and started running. There were scenes of destruction in nearby restaurants and shops.
“There were broken chairs and tables and other items lying everywhere on the ground.”
Another eyewitness, Afzal Awan, said he had seen wounded people with limbs missing lying in pools of blood.
“I saw smoke rising everywhere,” he told reporters. “A lot of people were crying.”
Exactly what do these people have to do with the operations going on in the northwestern part of the country? Nothing. They are innocent civilians, women, children and men going about their lives. The world must condemn these mass murders unequivocally. Nothing can justify it.