Car bomb in Peshawar

M Ansari

Every day now.

Attacks in Islamabad

Madeeha Ansari

Islamabad used to be the "safe town", insulated from many of the problems afflicting the rest of Pakistan. Now, there seems to be no such haven in the country.

Virtually all public places are subject to security threats. If the Army GHQ can be infiltrated, then what guarantees can be offered for the lives of mere mortals? On Tuesday, there was a double suicide attack - one the women's cafeteria of the International Islamic University, the other on the boys' campus. All educational institutions have been issued warnings, so that government and private schools in the four provinces have been closed for the rest of the week. Now, the consequences of neglect are spilling over into all segments of society, regardless of status and (to some extent) of gender. While the gravest implications remain for the future of female education, the indiscriminate nature of the attacks shows a growing kind of desperation.

Who are these people? What do they want to achieve? Naive as these questions may sound, they are quite pertinent in this context of anarchy.

It's hard being there and harder being away.