The NEWS: Ajaz Zaka Syed: Some of my Pakistani friends had been offended when some time ago in an emotional piece I had the temerity to suggest that some of the greatest crimes against Islam and its followers have been committed in the land that was earned in the name of the faith. It was a situation of, in Parveen Shakir’s words, “Baat toe sach hai magar baat hai ruswai ki” (although this is the truth, it’s not good for our reputation).

Now another senseless, totally absurd atrocity has been added to the long roll of crimes perpetrated in the name of Islam against the Muslims by fellow Muslims. At least 25 people, including 14 female university students, four nurses, a medical officer and the deputy commissioner of Quetta, were killed on Saturday, June 15 when a bomb tore through a bus, followed by a suicide attack and a bloody gun battle in the Bolan Medical College hospital, where the injured students were taken for treatment.

The authorities reveal that the attack targeting the students of the region’s only all-women university was carried out by a female suicide bomber and has proudly been claimed by the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

With all those lashkars, jaishes and defenders of faith though, Pakistan hardly needs the services of Uncle Sam or assorted Indian and Zionist conspirators and saboteurs. Of course, this isn’t the first such attack and, rest assured, it will not be the last one. This conflict has already claimed more than 48,000 lives in the past few years, suggests a report by South Asia Terrorism Portal and Institute for Conflict Management.

In the past few years Pakistan has witnessed so much mindless violence and splurging of innocent blood in its streets, mosques, schools and hospitals that the issue now evokes little more than helpless resignation and revulsion. After a point, death becomes a dull, daily routine and lost lives mere statistics.

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