Pakistan suffers under constant threat of Taliban attacks.

On Tuesday, militants stormed the gates of the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan, where they detonated explosives that killed at least 11 people.

The attack took place following threats by the Taliban to avenge the recent army offensive against the insurgents. Peshawar has been the site of frequent Taliban incursions as it is the capital of the North-West Frontier Province.

Faisal Kapadia is a freelance writer who lives in Karachi. He contributes to several blogs, including Deadpan Thoughts, where he reacts to the recent attack.

Peshawar Attacked

Its been 4 hours since the attack and still the rescuers are hard at work, in the dark digging up and out anyone that they can still find in the hotel. [...]

The people of Pakistan are in shock — this is the third attack in so many weeks, each one brings more carnage and the realization that the war supposed to be fought far away in the mountains is now here in the streets of our cities.

Even now the police of our country are paralyzed having no forensics to trace our enemies and shoddy equipment. With a ratio of 1-500 plus civilians what security can they provide us?

Even now the politicians do their lip service promising “immediate investigations.” Funny, as we have still been unable to unmask the killer of our first PM or the last one. Investigations always continue…

Even now the analysis nation has switched on, Facebook statuses galore as people emote, what else can the poor sods do?

Even now despite all this the people of Pakistan have realized who the enemy is and with each attack we grow more united to stand together and take them on.

Even now we will go to work tomorrow and carry on as if nothing has happened, not because we are in denial only but because we are with repeated violence almost immune to any feeling towards it or the victims.

Even now with the utmost of loathing I have to realize there are people around me still who believe that the militants are right and it is us that is to blame for our sins.

They may maim us and kill us but they can never silence our voice.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Recent attacks have raised new concerns about the abilities of Iraq’s security forces.

On Friday, for a second day in a row, the Iraqi capital of Baghdad was hit with a devastating bombing attack.

At least 60 people were killed when two suicide bombers blew up explosive belts within minutes of each other near the city’s most important Shiite shrine.

These latest attacks have raised new concerns about the abilities of Iraq’s security forces. In Washington on Friday, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, General David Petraeus, cautioned that progress in Iraq continues to be fragile and reversible.

Blogger “Mhmd” in Baghdad reacts to a nearby bombing:

i feel un-euphoric.

i’m at friends house on the pc while he’s answering about a million phone calls from family members.

There’s been multiple explosions and the victims were people. Real living smiling crying people. I’m speechless. I just have no idea what to say or do.

Blogger “Layla Anwar” writes from Iraq, saying that she has grown numb:

These days, when there are news of explosions going on in Baghdad and its vicinity, like daily, I avoid reading the full story. I just read the headlines.

I don’t want to know anymore.

I don’t want to know the number of dead, I don’t want to know the exact location, I don’t want to know how it happened, who did it, what time, the names, age and sex of the victims…I just don’t want to know anymore.

I say to myself, if it is anyone I am related to, I will find out about it…sooner than later. Right now, I just don’t want to know because — am saturated.

I am saturated with deaths, killings, explosions, people disappearing, people in detention, people in need, people in distress, people losing their homes — am saturated with numbers, with names of places, with stories and memories that have developed a life of their own now - settling themselves in my mind, in my waking and sleeping hours, like unwanted tenants who have appropriated your private space, like armed gangs who have taken over your home…and there is absolutely nothing you can do to evict them.

The “Eye Raki” blog writes that overall conditions are improving in Iraq:

Despite the recent lapse in security, things for the most part have been steadily improving. If only the terrorists knew that with every car bomb and suicide attack their chance of a future in Iraq goes further and further down the drain. I mean all the terrorists. The Ba’athists still dreaming of a united Arab nation, the Arabs still dreaming of a Caliphate, and the Shia militia still dreaming of their own country. The recent attacks in Baghdad have not been different from previous attacks. Still cold-blooded, still indiscriminate, still cowardice.

Marc Lynch at Foreign Policy’s blog explores the significance of the rise in attacks:

I don’t think that we’re seeing the “great unravelling” quite yet, nor that we’re yet seeing a return to higher levels of violence, insurgency and civil war.   But the increased violence and the growing chorus of complaints about the failures of political accommodation should be a cautionary note to the Iraqi government and to the major political players that time is running out to make the crucial political power-sharing agreements necessary before American troop withdrawals pick up their pace.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user jamesdale10 under a Creative Commons license.

Shahan Mufti of the Christian Science Monitor reports from Islamabad.

A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed at least 30 and wounded 100 when he drove into a gathering of tribesmen who were in the midst of plans to combat insurgents in the country.

Since the beginning of the year, 28 bombings have killed over 471 people in Pakistan by suicide bombers — more deaths than either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Shahan Mufti of the Christian Science Monitor speaks with Martin Savidge from Islamabad about the escalating violence in Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari’s ability to handle the insurgency and the challenges of dealing with various opposition forces.

One of the authors of the article, Warren Strobel, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the report and the outlook for Iraq.