Lahore attacks work of Mansehra trained, Raiwind assisted Taliban

...[U]p to a dozen militants entered Lahore between one week and 10 days ago from Waziristan, in the tribal area, and they were staying at [Raiwind] a centre for Muslim preachers on the edge of the city.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | UK Desk
Source & Credit: The Globe and Mail | World
By Saeed Shah | Islamabad | May 29, 2010
Selected excerpts from a long article

There are an estimated four to five million Ahmadis in Pakistan, where they are declared non-Muslims under the law for beliefs that many mainstream Muslims regard as heretical. Although Ahmadis, who think that Mohammad was not the last prophet, are regularly the victims of intimidation and violence, bloodshed on this scale marks another grim milestone for Pakistan.


The attack focuses attention on the extremist threat in Pakistan’s heartland Punjab province, of which Lahore is the bustling capital. The provincial government of the Punjab has been accused of playing down the menace it faces and even of associating with religious hard-liners. The Punjab government argues that the terrorist threat comes not from militant groups inside the province but from the tribal area in the northwest, where the Pakistani Taliban is based. The Punjab administration is in the hands of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whose Pakistan Muslim League-N sits in opposition to the national government in Islamabad.

“The Punjab government is living in a state of denial,” said Ali Dayan Hasan, South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, the U.S.-based rights group. “The scale and scope of this attack shows the marriage of Punjabi militancy with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.”

Munawar Ali Shahid, who was worshipping at the Garhi Shahu mosque at the time of the attack, told The Globe and Mail that he saved himself by running into another part of the building where many people then locked themselves in.

“We have written so many letters to the government of Punjab, to the IG [head of the Punjab police] about the threats we face, but they just ignored the situation,” said Mr. Shahid, who is a leading member of the Ahmadi community. “What can we do? Nothing.”

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent campaigning organization, said that it had been warning about the dangers that Ahmadis faced for more than a year.

Rana Sanaullah, the law minister for the Punjab government, said the team of up to a dozen militants entered Lahore between one week and 10 days ago from Waziristan, in the tribal area, and they were staying at [Raiwind] a centre for Muslim preachers on the edge of the city.

The Pakistani military is battling the Taliban in the tribal area but it is under severe U.S. pressure to expand its operations there.

Special to The Globe and Mail - Read original complete article here: Mosque attacks in Pakistan leave at least 70 dead