Scores murdered at church in Pakistan

The New York Times reports that the Taliban is being reasonably accused for a bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan of a church which claimed at least 78 lives;

The attack occurred as worshipers left All Saints Church in the old quarter of the regional capital, Peshawar, after a service on Sunday morning. Up to 600 people had attended the service and were leaving to receive free food being distributed on the lawn outside when two explosions ripped through the crowd.

“As soon as the service finished and the food was being distributed, all of a sudden we heard one explosion, followed by another,” said Azim Ghori, a witness.

Apparently, this bombing is the latest in a wave of violence from members of the Taliban who oppose the group’s peace talks with the government;

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been trying to initiate peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, aimed at ending a decade of violence. An all-parties political conference held this month gave the government approval to start negotiations with the insurgents.

But that offer was publicly rejected by the Taliban, which later claimed responsibility for the killing of a senior army general in Upper Dir, near the Afghan border, last week.

Immediately after Sunday’s bombing, questions were again raised about the government’s plans to hold peace talks.

I’m thinking that their strategy to bomb churches will probably end the possibility of any peace talks, so their plan is right on track.

Raja Nasir Abbas, a Shiite leader who is the secretary general of the party Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, demanded a “ruthless operation against the Taliban” and declared that the “weak policies” of the government had “emboldened the terrorists.”

Funny how that works in that part of the world, isn’t it? And no matter how much you try to remind people of it, the more they seem to appear weak and concede stuff to the murdering scum that emboldens them even more. It was just two weeks ago that Pakistan released some prisoners to meet the Taliban’s demands that were to precede peace talks. And just a week ago, they demanded the government release some more prisoners. So they kill nearly 80 people to show their appreciation.

The same thing is happening in Afghanistan – the more they give the Taliban, the more innocent people they kill.

Category: Terror War