Suicide Motorcycle Bomber Attacks Bus In Karachi, Pakistan - 11 Dead

The Taliban/al Qaeda are up to no good again as a suicide bomber on a motorcyle rammed into a bus carrying Shias with the end result being 11 dead. From the article at DAWN:

A motorcycle rigged with explosives rammed into a bus carrying Shias in Karachi Friday, killing 11 people and wounding 40 in the second such attack in Pakistan's financial capital in two months.
The attack, in a city largely isolated from bombings concentrated in northwest Pakistan but with a history of sectarian tensions and political violence, underscored the security challenges facing the country.
“Eleven people have been martyred and 40 injured. There are children and women among the killed and wounded,” Doctor Seemi Jamal, the chief of Jinnah Hospital in Karachi, told AFP.
The bus was carrying Shia Muslim mourners to participate in a religious procession to mark the end of the holy month of Muharram in Karachi, a city of 16 million people.

One thing to note from the article is that there was a previous bombing of another Shia holiday procession back in December that killed 43. Which leads me to a bit of a conclusion regarding the scurge from al Qaeda and their new trainees, the Taliban. And as I write this, there has been a second attack on Shias in Iraq after another horrendous attack yesterday in Karbaala.

We all remember how al Qaeda in Iraq tried to set off the powder keg in Iraq a few years ago when they were bombing Shia mosques and such in order to incite a Shia backlash against Sunnis in the country - a true civil war, not the fake one that the Democrats in the U.S. wanted to portray, was hoped to be sparked. Well, this is partly what the al Qaeda mentors are trying to do in Pakistan. Radical islamic terror hinges on chaos and doubt and bringing tensions beyond the breaking point. Now, the tactic backfired in Iraq so one might wonder why this is being tried in Pakistan and why it continues in Iraq?

It's my contention that the leadership of al Qaeda and the Taliban simply use the new Jihad, to release their true feelings about the split is Islam. No matter how they try to spin it, what we are dealing with is a bunch of extremist Sunnis and Wahabbis who detest their "brothers" who have followed Shia islam. I guess the best analogy of this that I can come up with is the actions of the IRA in Northern Ireland many years ago. The IRA operations were directed towards the British government but there were a plethera of attacks that simply were aimed at killed Northern Irish protestants - they claimed symbolism and attacking "traitors" but the bottom line was an age old vengeance by Catholics against Protestants in the area. Thus, there are many al Qaeda leaders who have spent their life wanting to teach Shias a lesson. Whether or not Pakistan can weather this storm like Iraq did is a good question, but believe me, this will NOT be the last busload of Shias in Pakistan that will be found smoldering.

Blast targets bus in Karachi, 11 killed


KARACHI: A motorcycle rigged with explosives rammed into a bus carrying Shias in Karachi Friday, killing 11 people and wounding 40 in the second such attack in Pakistan's financial capital in two months.
The attack, in a city largely isolated from bombings concentrated in northwest Pakistan but with a history of sectarian tensions and political violence, underscored the security challenges facing the country.
“Eleven people have been martyred and 40 injured. There are children and women among the killed and wounded,” Doctor Seemi Jamal, the chief of Jinnah Hospital in Karachi, told AFP.
The bus was carrying Shia Muslim mourners to participate in a religious procession to mark the end of the holy month of Muharram in Karachi, a city of 16 million people.
“The bus was carrying Shia mourners. It was full of people and a motorcycle rammed into the bus. The motorcycle was completely destroyed and the bus was heavily damaged,” police official Shahid Hasan told AFP.
City police chief Waseem Ahmad told reporters that the motorcycle was rigged with an improvised-explosive device (IED). It remained unclear whether the motorcycle was being driven by anyone when it struck the bus.
The attack happened on the bridge of the main Faisal highway in the centre of Karachi, shattering windows in nearby buildings, said an AFP reporter.
Ambulances raced through the streets as volunteers helped to evacuate the wounded and armed security forces patrolled the area, television footage showed.
On December 28, a massive bombing killed 43 people at a parade marking the holiest Shia day of Ashura earlier in the month of Muharram.
Pakistan's feared Taliban network claimed responsibility for that attack, sparking riots that caused huge financial losses.
Security forces were on high alert in Karachi with a wave of political violence killing at least 37 activists from rival parties in the last five days, following 48 similar killings last month.
The Awami National Party (ANP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which have a history of bitter relations, both claim their workers have been shot dead.
The two parties belong to the local governing coalition in southern province Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital, and which is led by President Asif Ali Zardari's main ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
MQM represents Muslims who migrated from India after independence and is Karachi's dominant party. ANP represents an estimated two million Pashtuns who have migrated to Karachi from northwest Pakistan.
Pakistan has seen a recent decline in militant attacks, attributed both to the success of a US drone war and Pakistani offensives in the tribal belt shadowing the Afghan border where Taliban and Al-Qaeda networks are based.
Last month, 153 people were killed by militants in Pakistan — nearly half the 275 killed in October, according to an AFP tally.