Terror’s grip tightens on Pakistan, with frequent explosions and gunfire turning streets into battlegrounds. As the death toll mounts among the innocent, a heated political showdown erupted when Information Minister Attaullah Tarar accused PTI founder Imran Khan of nurturing the menace, nicknaming him ‘Taliban Khan’ amid grins at a post-attack briefing.
Saturday’s event addressed Friday’s deadly Imambargah bombing on Islamabad’s edge, defying the Safe City setup and elite security. Tarar batted away failure allegations, instead reminiscing about golden eras of counter-terror success: Radd-ul-Fasaad and Zarb-e-Azb curbed suicides and tamed Karachi’s lawlessness.
‘All that unraveled under one administration,’ he hinted, referencing PTI’s bid to negotiate with and relocate banned TTP fighters, whom Khan once called ‘our peaceful kin.’ ‘Paying for Taliban Khan’s folly now,’ Tarar lamented, praising historic state efforts to evict and eliminate jihadists.
With a jab, he pinned the revival on PTI. Retaliation was swift from PTI’s platforms: ‘Choosing comedy, venomous rhymes, and smiles over solemnity a day post-atrocity betrays their contempt for Pakistanis.’ They escalated, calling Tarar a ‘buffoon’ whose gleeful PTI-bashing after years in office reveals governance by ‘lowlifes.’
This imbroglio captures Pakistan’s peril: a nation under siege, its leaders more focused on mudslinging than mending. Terrorism thrives in such disunity, demanding leaders rise above petty politics to safeguard the vulnerable and restore stability before the next tragedy strikes.