The Lahore Attack

Increasingly, Zardari resembles a man with a begging bowl in one hand, and a gun in the other pointed at his own head. The reality is that for decades, we have sacrificed the bulk of our resources to support a vast defence apparatus we could ill afford. The extremist menace that threatens to destroy us was largely a creation of our own military establishment. And now that we need the army to defend us, we find it is not up to the task.

Sri Lanka’s cricketers agreed to replace the Indian cricket team. The latter’s tour of Pakistan, arranged prior to the Mumbai carnage as one of the confidence building measures between India and Pakistan, was canceled for very obvious reasons. The Pakistani cricket establishment invited Sri Lanka instead and the great sporting nation that they are, they agreed to the tour albeit after some initial hiccups.

Pakistan however is a destination that many other cricketing countries have decided not to visit for the very present danger there. The hapless Sri Lankans have just found out what it costs to play in Pakistan. Details of exactly what happened have not been made available, but it has been established that the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked by gunmen and seven players and a coach have been wounded.

Quite what it means to the South Asian countries is best left unsaid by me. Sri Lankans have enough to handle on their own turf with a decisive stage having been reached by their armed forces against the dreaded LTTE.

If Pakistan’s establishment plays true to their flip flop, first they will blame India for this mishap, after that, they will blame the LTTE, and eventually, they will accept that it was homegrown terrorists who were responsible and that they will be brought to book. After that, nothing more will be heard of the incident till the next attack takes place.

Quite how the Obama administration will make use of their ally and front line partner in the USA’s fight against terror is becoming murkier by the day. May be now, the Zardari government will hand over Lahore also to the Taliban to implement Sharia law as their own machinery does not seem to be functional.

Madeline Albright suggested that Pakistan is now the International Migraine. Perhaps now she will call it the International joke.