| 01 June 2004 | Tuesday | 12 Rabi-us-Saani 1425 |
Al Khobar killings
Cable car for Islamabad
Where and when will it all end? When will the curse that appears to have settled on Karachi be lifted? A bomb went off at an imambargah in the city on Monday, killing at least a dozen people and injuring many.
The vicious new attack came when the people had yet to recover from the shock of the assassination of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai on Sunday. A venerated scholar and divine, he had never preached sectarian hatred.
He was universally respected and ran the Binnori medressah on a curriculum that has produced some outstanding men of learning in South Asia. Two other members of the medressah, Maulana Yusuf Ludhianvi and Mufti Habibullah Mukhtar, had earlier fallen victim to assassins' bullets.
Known for his anti-Saudi and anti-American views, Mufti Shamzai's sympathies lay with Al Qaeda, and it is known that he was close to Mullah Omar of Afghanistan, though he often disagreed with the Taliban's methods.
During the Kargil clash, he issued a fatwa for jihad against India, and against the US for its attack on Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11. It goes without saying that he was of special interest to some foreign powers, which obviously were keeping a close watch on him.
The government had provided him with a security guard. But, as the killing of several persons have shown, guards cannot stop a well-planned assassination attempt. They may at best fire back, but the assassins invariably succeed in their mission because they resort to random shooting or planting a bomb without worrying about who else gets killed or hurt. One hopes the inquiry by a High Court judge, ordered by the Sindh chief minister, will unmask the faces of the killers.
Karachi has been rocked by violence throughout May. The month began with a suicide bombing at the Hyderi mosque that killed 22 people and injured countless others. Leaving aside the spectacle of widespread violence during the May 11 by-election and its heavy toll, a bomb blast went off at the Karachi Port Trust building on May 25, killing two persons.
A day later, two bombs exploded near the Pakistan American Cultural Centre, killing one policeman and injuring more than 30 other people. Four days later came Mufti Shamzai's assassination, followed by mob rule in sections of the city, and then the tragedy on Monday.
Many people - even those who do not believe in conspiracy theories - are wondering whether some forces are out to destroy Karachi's peace and throw it back to the days of the mid-'80s made infamous by riots and massacres.
One can only be appalled by the repeated failure of the intelligence agencies to pre-empt acts of terrorism. There are quite a few intelligence outfits in the military and civilian sectors, but none of them has succeeded in penetrating the known and unknown sources of hate, violence and terrorism or to understand that at some point the various motivations for violence - 'jihad' and sectarianism, for instance - have become inextricably linked.
This is one reason why terrorists are able to strike at will. The nightmarish situation should also impel our political parties to adopt a more purposive approach to politics.
Their inability to propagate the message of love, harmony and tolerance and their proclivity for calls for strikes every now and then have contributed in no small measure to the spread of the culture of violence in the country.
Al Khobar killings
The death of 22 people, mostly foreign workers, in a series of attacks by extremists in Saudi Arabia's oil city of Al Khobar is a reminder that the kingdom still has a very tough task ahead reining in home-grown terrorists who specialize in targeting foreigners.
A group said to be affiliated with Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for Saturday's attacks and said on a website that the coming months would be "miserable" for foreigners and that the kingdom would be "cleansed of infidels".
By committing such gruesome acts, misguided fanatics only confirm their philosophy of hatred. They do no justice to their country and only tarnish Saudi Arabia's image as a breeding ground for terrorists. But that perhaps is their objective, in spite of the fact that such acts also do immeasurable harm to the religion they claim to believe in and follow as the supreme source of inspiration for their beliefs and actions.
It would be futile to argue that the way out would be for the Saudis to embrace more democracy (perhaps an end in itself for all nations), because those behind this weekend's attacks, and similar other incidents in April and November, are the ones who could not care less about democracy.
Zealots like them would have little inclination to express their frustration and outrage through non-violent means. The modus operandi of the terrorists shows a definite degree of desperation and this will have to be factored in by the security services in their plans to prevent future attacks.
The only approach that can possibly work in dealing with such elements is to take them head on and stamp them out with an iron hand. Incidents like these only underline how the war on terror has singed countries seen to be supporting it, although Riyadh has often disagreed with Washington on Iraq, Palestine and many facets of current American policies.
Cable car for Islamabad
The decision by the Capital Development Authority to install a cable car service linking Children's Park in Islamabad's Sector F-6 with the Margalla hilltop is a welcome move.
The project had been under consideration for quite some time but could not be started because of the CDA's financial constraints. The civic body has now decided to invite bids for it from the private sector on a Build-Operate-and-Transfer basis and as a joint venture.
Either way, the project is expected to be completed within three years, with its base station situated at a height of 1,955 feet and the peak station at 3,839 feet above sea level.
The running time between the two points will be about 30 minutes. When completed, this will be the second cable car in the country, the other one having been installed at the Patriata resort near Murree.
Going by the success of the Patriata project as well as the chair lifts operating at Ghora Gali-Pindi Point in Murree and at Ayubia in the NWFP, there is no reason why a similar amusement project in the capital should not prove a popular one.
The ski lift at Malam Jabba in Swat, despite a limited number of ski enthusiasts in the country, is no exception when it comes to attracting tourists. The Margalla hills have a lot of potential for development as a scenic destination.
The best part about the hills is that they are easily accessible all the year round. This will ensure that any amusement opportunities there will never be without visitors, whether it is summer or winter.
But while that is done, authorities must remain mindful of preserving the hills' natural environment: the many species of the flora and fauna, animals and insects found there as well as the natural blue-water lagoons.
For this purpose, the CDA would do well to keep the department overseeing the Margalla Hills National Park fully involved in all development projects that it might commission there.