Pakistan militants attack Rawalpindi mosque
By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
Published: December 4 2009 11:22 | Last updated: December 4 2009 17:45
Suspected pro-Taliban militants launched an armed attack and a suicide bombing on a mosque in Rawalpindi on Friday, killing at least 39 people and wounding more than 80 others.
The attack began just after Friday prayers, targeting a mosque frequented by military officials in the Qasim market district.
Rawalpindi is Pakistan’s main garrison town and the mosque is located about 10 minutes’ drive from the Pakistan army’s general headquarters.
Officials said a lone suicide bomber had detonated a blast in the mosque and minutes later as many as five militants, who were apparently present in the compound of the mosque, began firing indiscriminately.
The attack has revived concerns over the safety of army personnel who are waging a campaign against Taliban militants in the south Waziristan region near the Afghan border. Officials said at least one army major general and a brigadier were among those killed. A former vice chief of the army, Mohammad Yusuf, was among those injured.
“This is a security lapse and it shows that there was a gap somewhere which allowed these people to go through” said Mehmood Shah, a former army commander, in comments on a Pakistani TV channel.
In October, pro-Taliban militants launched a daring attack on the army’s GHQ and took as many as 42 military personnel hostage. That episode ended after two days when **army commandos stormed the building **](Subscribe to read)where the hostages were being held. At least 23 people were killed in that attack, including 14 military personnel and nine pro-Taliban militants.
Intelligence officials said the latest attack once again underlined the difficulty of securing congested urban areas in a country where the militants are largely from the local population.
“You can put together as many layers of security as you want. But you will always face the difficult choice of creating a fool-proof cordon, especially in exceptionally busy urban areas” said an intelligence source. “Do we delay or stop people from going for their Friday prayers?”.
In recent months, senior intelligence officials have claimed that for each successful attack, there have been at least nine others that have failed because of timely intelligence warnings.
“The problem is that such attacks will keep on coming for some time to come. What is important is that they must be stopped or else the militants will just feel they are winning,” said one western defence official.
FT.com / Asia-Pacific / Pakistan - Pakistan militants attack Rawalpindi mosque
in a mosque??? what were these people thinking!!?
