I’ve been very dissatisfied with the level of coverage in the Western media generally, the American media in particular on the political and security crisis in Pakistan of which the recent suicide attack on former PM Benazir Bhutto’s convoy last week is only the most recent reminder. Even The Economist, usually a good source for such analysis, hasn’t had a great deal to offer.
Somewhat by accident yesterday evening (I was looking for something else) I stumbled on a blog which has produced amazing coverage and analysis of the attack, The Pakistan Policy Blog. I found its coverage both detailed and crisp and its analysis thought-provoking. Names, dates, places, details, background. Here are the posts on the attack:
BREAKING NEWS: Two blasts near Benazir Bhutto’s convoy
The Massacre at Karsaz Bridge: Analysis of the Bhutto Blast (Part 1)
The Massacre at Karsaz Bridge: Analysis of the Bhutto Blast (Part 2)
I’ve found the questions posed at the end of a number of the posts particularly intriguing. Here are the questions from the conclusion to the last post above:
- Where are the gunman and attempted suicide bomber apprehended by Bhutto’s security people and turned over to Karachi police? Are they being interrogated? Why haven’t they been mentioned in most reports?
- To what extent were Musharraf and Bhutto’s camps negligent?
- Did the jammers provided by Musharraf’s camp work?
- Did Bhutto’s supporters accidentally cause some of them to malfunction?
- Did it make sense for Bhutto to have an 18-hr procession, especially after individuals such as Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarem urged her to end her procession before sunset and others offered her a helicopter? Why were Bhutto’s “security guards†young, scrawny volunteers? To what extent were they human shields? Wouldn’t professionals have been better?
- How will the attacks impact political rallies and mass mobilization? Will Bhutto travel extensively in Punjab?
- Did Bhutto’s intelligence come from India via Afghanistan?
- Will Musharraf go soft on the military-intel figures if they were involved in the attacks, but hard on jihadis in FATA (though they might have not been involved)?
- Will he use the attacks a pre-text for a massive, conclusive operation in FATA?
Jammers as in
Two recent examples have highlighted the use of cell phones to detonate bombs. The March 11 railway bombings in Madrid were triggered by calls placed to cell phones attached to the explosives.
And Baca, who recently returned from a fact-finding trip to Pakistan, described to the congregation at Sinai Temple in Westwood how Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly avoided a Dec. 14 assassination attempt thanks to a jamming device in his motorcade.
A bomb exploded moments after his limousine passed over a road bridge close to the capital, and Pakistani intelligence officials claimed that the jamming device delayed the cell phone detonator long enough to allow Musharraf to pass without injury.
The implication being that Musharraf’s people deliberately left Bhutto vulnerable with defective jammers?
But what difference does it make if Bhutto’s motorcade was attacked by suicide bombers?
Some of the things I’ve read suggest that it wasn’t originally intended as a suicide attack but became one when the attacker faced apprehension.