WHETHER it is a mosque or a church, religiously motivated militants care little; whether it is a school, a hospital or a garrison, they are indifferent. What matters to them is the enemy’s death — and it is of little consequence whoever else gets killed in the process. Wednesday’s suicide bombing killed reportedly five soldiers and wounded many others when the driver of an explosives-laden truck rammed his vehicle into a mosque next to a major checkpost in Khajori, North Waziristan, although some reports indicate that it was the checkpost that was targeted. The suicide bomber struck when nearly 50 soldiers of the Frontier Corps were offering evening prayers. Such was the power packed into the bomber’s vehicle that the mosque collapsed.

This is not for the first time that a mosque has fallen victim to the practical manifestation of the Taliban’s concept of jihad. In their attempt to kill politician Aftab Sherpao, they bombed an Eid prayer congregation at Charsadda, killing over 50 people in December 2007; two years later, the militants blew up a Rawalpindi mosque during Friday prayers in a high security zone, killing 40 people, including children and a major general; and in 2010, over 70 Muslims lay dead after the Taliban blasted a mosque in Darra Adamkhel. The list is long. With talks in the air and some mainstream politicians acting virtually as Taliban spokesmen, the militants’ attack on the soldiers at prayer conveys a chillingly clear message — the Taliban leadership is not going to exercise restraint to create a congenial atmosphere for talks. That the Taliban have left to the government to do — unilaterally and without expecting any reciprocity. It is now for those who conferred shahadat on Hakeemullah Mehsud to let us know who was the shaheed this time round: the suicide bomber or the soldiers at prayer?