Category — News

At about 8:50 PM (via GEO), a bomb went off in an Italian restaurant Luna Caprese in Islamabad Super market (in F-6 Markaz).

The nature of the bomb blast is not yet ascertained and neither is the motive, but foreigners were found in abundance at this restaurant. One American nurse is confirmed dead due to the injuries sustained in the blast. More than 20 others, many of them foreigners, are injured and have been taken to nearby hospitals.

For more up-to-date coverage of this tragedy, visit Islamabad Metblogs.
Not a week has passed since the twin blasts at Lahore, and now this. Really, there is nothing to say, the mind draws a blank.

One bomb blast near FIA office on Temple Road, near the Mall.
One bomb blast near Zardari house, in Model Town.
Two explosions, one hit.

Hardly 5 minutes ago, I received a phone call from a friend on his way to work.
He heard a loud - extremely loud - bang while he was traveling down the canal. He told me his sister, attending college at Lahore University, also called him to inquire about the ’sound’.

We are sick of these ’sounds’. Who is to blame? Who will capture whom? Will the politicians take off their thick masks and actually smell what’s gawddamn cooking?

Update (11:20 A.M)
The death toll has risen to 20. (via Geo TV). Now referring to bomb blasts will become a problem, as people would ask which one; the one on March 11th or 8th? The twin bombs that went off at the same place (Naval war college) or the ones that went off separately!?!?.

This menace has been going on for too long now. Most frustrating is, what can one do?

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a prestigious naval college in Lahore on Tuesday March 4th, 2008, killing at least six people and injuring twenty three.

The attack was the fourth in five days in Pakistan, posing a major challenge to the country’s incoming government. Here are the details of the suicide bomb blast.

Inspector General Police Punjab Dr Syed Azhar Hassan Nadeem has ordered police in the province to remain on high alert following the attacks.

Meanwhile, President Pervez Musharraf, Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro and Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari condemned the bombings.

The president and the premier expressed their sympathies to the families of the affected. Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Afzal Tahir also extended his condolences.

The attack came as the chief of the US military held talks on regional security with President Musharraf and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani in Rawalpindi.

Ever heard of Metroblogging.com? Well let’s see what they can tell us about themselves.

“Metroblogging is the largest and fastest growing network of city-specific blogs on the Web. From San Francisco to Bangkok, from Karachi to Toronto, Metblogs are a hyper-local look at what’s going on in the city. Our hand-picked core of regional bloggers give each site a new perspective on daily life; less calendar listings, more friendly advice. With Metblogs ®, you can read about life and times in your neighborhood, your favorite places to visit, places where you’ve never been, or get a feel for them all with the “best of” blog on the hub at metroblogging.com.”

Metroblogging.com is unique in its own way. With ten to twenty volunteer writers writing for a particular metroblogging site, determined to keep you more aware of your surroundings with ‘what’s happening and where’, may it be related to latest news and information, shopping guide, hottest issues, history, sports, weather and what not, information is always pouring in, and its network is constantly growing, super fast!. Now all you need to know about the on-going events and latest information regaring any city in the world is just one click away. All thanks to Metroblogging team.

But the best just got better. As the Metroblogging administration revamped their website and gave it more than just a new look on March 3rd, 2008. It means they have improved and one step closer to its final form.

 So if you’re a blogger and yet unaware of this site, you owe it to yourself to check it out and see how a real blogging site works. Anf if you’re already a member, well then keep up the good work, enjoy the new look and the new features. And keep us posted!

My friend lives in the peaceful G.O.R. off Mall Road, two houses down from the Pakistan Navy War College, across Aitchison College, Lahore. When the four consecutive bomb blasts went off, his mother was the only one at the house and as she later recalled, the shock waves nearly shattered the house’s windows.

Windows nearly shattered, but one thing that actually may have been disintegrated is the relative confidence and sense of security people had started to feel, given the recent clear victory of ballot power over wallet power.

Terrorism has no religion, and claim as they may, these callous terrorists are not even close to being in the same vicinity of even remotely being called Muslims. Politically, no one has even for a moment doubted the sheer difficulty the new government will face in the form of tackling this weirdly ubiquitous state-of-mind, more commonly known as terrorism.

God guide and help us all. Aameen.

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More on this at Geo