Pakistan and the spectre of suicide bombing

This was in November 2015. I was reminded of my Pakistan visit and this conversation and the spectre of suicide bombing in Pakistan after the Easter Sunday bombing in a Lahore park last month which claimed the lives of nearly 70 persons, mostly Christians.

Earlier that day, while still in Lahore, I had passed in front of Data Durbar, a sufi shrine greatly revered in the region. This was the spot where a suicide bomber had claimed some 50 lives in July 2010. I bowed my head as I went past, noticing the entry to the shrine despite the past tragedy. The mass of humanity at the shrine showed that the suicide attack was now a faint memory, the heavy presence of policemen and barricades outside the shrine notwithstanding. And I was reminded of the Golden Temple in Amritsar during the days of terrorism in Punjab. Heavily guarded, yet thronging with devotees.
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In this third visit of mine to Lahore, and second one within 12 months, I recalled the similarity of situation in Pakistani Punjab with the one we faced in our Punjab in the 80s and till mid-90s. An atmosphere of anticipation, gun toting cops all around, machine gun mounted police jeeps, army check points etc, etc. And yet life going on as usual, at least during the day. At nightfall, Indian Punjab was still, eerily deserted.

But Lahore, in comparison, comes alive at night. Go out at 2 am and you can grab a decent bite at a decent place. And with families sitting around. It was at a similar fun filled park full of children where the terrorists struck the other day.

The calm is deceptive as the attack showed. The feverish work for the Lahore metro extension, the urgent repair works to the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway, the mad rush in Anarkali, cannot push aside the uneasy feeling in the gut.

This had been a short visit. I had returned in 48 hours. On my way back to Wagah, I passed through the cantonment area of Lahore. Almost each vehicle was being checked by armed soldiers. I was transported to the 1991-94 years when I was a college student in Amritsar and saw similar scenes in Amritsar cantonment.

Times change. The shoe was on the other foot. Pakistan-supported Khalistani extremism had hit Indian Punjab hard. Today the other side of Radcliffe Line was in turmoil at the hands of Islamic radicals. But as an Indian or as a fellow Punjabi, I was not elated at the reversed circumstances. We had gone through it and suffered.

The spectre of suicide bombing is omnipresent in Pakistan. I had visited Nankana Sahib a day earlier on the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev and seen the extraordinary lengths to which the local police had gone to ensure that Pakistanis did not mingle with Indian crowds. This was more to keep away any trouble maker than to restrict interaction with the Indians. Liberal doses of Punjabi abuses coupled with thwacks of Lathi kept the truant away while razor wire blocked the access of sidelanes of the town leading to the main road.