82 dead after suicide bomber sent by terrorist “beasts” turned Sunni mosque in Pakistan into a “graveyard” during Friday prayers

The death toll has now reached 82,⁴ including 11 children,¹ with 80 others wounded⁵ after a suicide bomber attacked a Sunni² mosque in Pakistan during Friday prayers attended by around 300.⁵ The bomber blew himself up in the Waali Mosque's main hall after guards at the gate tried but failed to stop him.⁵ Mohammad Usman, 32, a schoolteacher who was wounded in the attack said the place looked “just like a graveyard” afterwards.²

The mosque in Akhurwall village, Darra Adam Khel area, near Peshwar, was owned³ and frequented² by tribal elders running a government sponsored anti-Taliban militia, although none of them were there on this day.²

Khalid Umarzai, a regional administrator, said the army was conducting operations against militants in the area and that such a revenge attack had been expected.¹

 Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, whose only son was killed by militants earlier this year, said the attack was part of international terrorism and that militant "beasts" were lashing out against a crackdown on them.² He urged America, Pakistan and Afghanistan to cooperate and work “more aggressively to root out this menace”.²

Sources: 1. AFP, 2. AP, 3. Daily Mail, 4. Indo-Asian News Service, 5. Reuters

(Bad) Muslim psychology: The blame game

 Iran has arrested four alleged Kurdish terrorists and accused Britain of link to them via Jalil Fattahi, thought to be living in Britain. The British deny supporting terror. Political science teacher Houchang Hassan-yari, of Canada's Royal Military College said,

it is Tehran's standard practice to finger "outside forces and outside enemies for everything bad that goes on inside the country."

[It is not just Tehran. It is how so many Muslims think. They simply blame others for all that's wrong with themselves, either to excuse themselves or to denigrate others.]

Source: VOA 

Ethnic Baluch Sunni Iranian rebel group Jundullah declared a terror group by the US

 The group claims to be fighting against perceived discrimination¹ of Sunni Baluch ethnic group in the Shiite Persian country. They are active mainly in the Sistan-Baluchistan province^1,2 and had claimed responsibility for the July suicide bombings of Zahedan Grand Mosque in the city of Zahedan that killed 28.¹  They claim it was targeted at Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps in revenge for the hanging of its leader Abdolmalek Rigi in June.¹ The US also accuses it of being responsible for a May 2009 mosque attack and an October 2009 bombing that killed over 40.²

 [This is somewhat ironic given that the leader of the secular bloc in Iraq's Parliament, Ayad Allawi, amongst others, has said that Iran "definitely" finances terror. So who is the good guy here?]

Source: 1. BBC 2. CNN 

Al-Shabaab executes two "evil" teenage girls alleged to be spies and "enemies of Islam"

 Ayan Mohamed Jama and Horiyo Ibrahim were executed by a firing squad in the Somali town of Beledweyne.⁴ The town's residents were forced to watch the execution.¹ Al-Shabaab commander Sheikh Yusuf Ali Ugas said the girls were "evil"³ and "enemies of Islam".²

Source: 1. AP, 2. BBC, 3. CNN, 4. The Daily Telegraph (UK) 

6 dead, including 2 women, 13 others injured after Sufi shrine bombed in Pakpattan, Pakistan

The bombing of a Sufi shrine in the Pakistani city of Pakpattan has killed at least 6 people,¹ two of them women,² and injured 13 others.³ The bomb was placed inside a milk churn on a motorcycle parked outside the gate of the shrine,⁴ where a 12th century saint, Baba Farid, also known as Ganjshakar is buried.⁵ Three of the wounded were women.⁶ Taliban, which has carried out attacks against Sufi shrines in the past,⁷ and Sunni extremists vehemently oppose Sufi Islam and consider their shrines idolatrous.⁸ In July, two suicide bombers killed 42 at Data Darbar shrine in Lahore and on October 7, nine worshipers, including two children were killed by two suicide bombers at Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine in Karachi.⁹

Source: AFP 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9. BBC 4. Reuters 1,7.

Pakistan mosque bombing kills 4, including children aged 7 and 10

 A 1.5 kg improvised-explosive device (IED) explosion near a Sunni mosque during Friday prayers, which usually attract the largest crowd, in Pushta Khara neighborhood of Pesahwar, Pakistan, has killed at least four, including a seven-year-old boy and 10-year-old child, while injuring 22 others. Police official Ejaz Ahmad said the bombing may have been a response to recent crackdown on militants in the area.

Source: 1. AFP, 2. AP