XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: gabby@duhduh.com   
      
   Pakistan held the daily flag-lowering ceremony at its busiest   
   border crossing with India yesterday, just 24 hours after a   
   suicide bombing killed 55 people at the event.   
      
   “Such incidents will never break the hearts of the Pakistani   
   people; they will never bog us down,” Lieutenant General Naweed   
   Zaman told reporters at the Wagah border post after yesterday’s   
   ceremony.   
      
   The Nov. 2 bombing was the first major terrorist strike since   
   Pakistan’s army started an operation in June to root out Taliban   
   militants in North Waziristan along the Afghan border. It also   
   occurred as Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has sought to   
   improve relations with India.   
      
   “Of the three groups that have claimed responsibility, all three   
   are splinters of the Pakistani Taliban, which is why there’s   
   risk in Pakistan to improve relations with India,” said Omar   
   Hamid, the head of Asia-Pacific at IHS Country Risk in London.   
   “It’s not that easy for these groups to operate within India.”   
      
   The death toll from the Nov. 2 attack included 12 children, 13   
   women and three paramilitary personnel, said Nabila Ghazanfar, a   
   spokeswoman for the Punjab provincial police.   
      
   The attack prompted India and Pakistan to suspend trading from   
   the border post for at least two days, the Times of India   
   reported on its website yesterday, citing custom officials.   
      
   “Investigations are on, and we have information which we can’t   
   share” about the perpetrators, Ghazanfar said.   
      
   Taliban Splinter Group   
      
   The Tehrek-e-Taliban Pakistan JamaatulAhrar, a splinter group of   
   the Pakistani Taliban, took responsibility for the blast and   
   said more attacks would be coming.   
      
   “This attack is the revenge of the killing of those innocent   
   people who have been killed by Pakistan Army, particularly of   
   those who have been killed in North Waziristan,” Ehsanullah   
   Ehsan, a spokesman for JamaatulAhrar, said in an e-mail   
   yesterday.   
      
   Security officials yesterday found a suicide jacket close to the   
   site of the Nov. 2 detonation and removed explosives that   
   weighed 8 to 10 kilos (22 pounds), Samaa TV reported, citing   
   unidentified security officials. It may have been meant for a   
   separate, failed bombing, the channel said.   
      
   The Nov. 2 attack occurred about 500 meters (0.3 mile) from the   
   Wagah border post near Lahore. The bomber detonated as visitors   
   returned from the flag-lowering ceremony, which had drawn as   
   many as 8,000 people.   
      
   ‘Backlash’   
      
   Rana Sanaullah Khan, a spokesman for the government of Punjab   
   province and a member of Prime Minister Sharif’s ruling party,   
   said the government hadn’t determined who was responsible.   
      
   “There’s been a backlash against Sharif’s moves to improve   
   relations with India,” said IHS’s Hamid. “That backlash came   
   from both the military, which exerted political pressure on the   
   Sharif government, and it is coming increasingly from jihadi   
   groups and the splinter groups emerging” from the Pakistani   
   Taliban, he said.   
      
   Television images showed a line of caskets with white sheets   
   covering them in a row outside of the hospital. Ambulances   
   wailed as eyewitnesses spoke about how the blast hit them after   
   they attended the parade.   
      
   Security was tightened around Punjab, with extra police and   
   paramilitary troops deployed across the province, state-run   
   Pakistan Television reported, citing Punjab Law Minister Mujtaba   
   Shuja-ur-Rehman.   
      
   The blast occurred at about 6:15 p.m. local time, Ashok Kumar,   
   India’s inspector general of the Border Security Force, said by   
   phone.   
      
   “Our side is safe,” Kumar said. “Still, we are on alert,   
   maintaining extra caution. There is no need to panic.”   
      
   http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-03/pakistan-holds-border-   
   ceremony-after-55-killed-in-bombing.html   
      
       
      
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