Mingora blast

Shocking indeed was the suicide bomb attack on Saturday outside the district courts in Mingora, Swat, where initially 10 persons including security personnel were killed and many others injured. Bomb disposal squad said that 16 kilos of explosives might have been used in the subversive act. The bomber reportedly arrived in a rickshaw and was trying to advance towards the check-post jointly manned by army and police when security forces fired warning shots. Before they could shoot him down, the intruder detonated the explosive jacket and blew himself up. The blast set ablaze the cars parked in the area and destroyed at least five of them completely. The casualties were rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital, Saidu Sharif. Minutes after the incident, traders pulled shutters on their shops as security forces clamped curfew on the main road. An identical explosion in Mingora’s busy Nishat Chowk on February 22 had claimed the lives of a dozen of innocent people.

Saturday’s suicide attack came at a time when the internally displaced persons still living in rented homes in Peshawar had almost started packing up for their native district under the impression that the scenic valley had totally been cleared of the miscreants. Two suicide strikes in 20 days left them with serious misgivings about the peace prospects. Red roses in the hilltop White Palace, the elegant deodars in the Fizza Ghat tourist resort and the springtime blossoms of chrysanthemum on the lawns of private bungalows probably still smelled of gun powder. TTP leaders had gone underground but solitary suicide bombers continued to stalk the roads that branched out at Mingora’s dreaded Green Chowk. Frightened cinema owners that hesitatingly began to screen Pushto films recently wonder if the time is really ripe for turning a new leaf in their dull life. The security forces should send out a clear and unambiguous message in this regard.