I wonder about the seeming expansion of Muslim-on-Muslim suicide bombing we first saw in Iraq and are now seeing in Pakistan. Are there religious authorities that are sanctioning this? Most of these attacks are Sunni vs. Shi’a affairs or vice-versa, but some of it is now tribal or militia-on-militia.
A suicide bomber set off an explosives-laden vehicle on a field during a volleyball tournament Friday in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 25 people, police said.
The blast occurred near Pakistan’s tribal belt, and was the latest bloodshed to rattle the country since the army launched a military offensive against Taliban fighters in the South Waziristan tribal region…
Police said Friday’s bombing in Lakki Marwat city, not far from South Waziristan, was possible retaliation for local residents’ efforts to keep militants out of the area.
”The locality has been a hub of militants. Locals set up a militia and expelled the militants from this area. This attack seems to be reaction to their expulsion,” local police chief Ayub Khan told reporters.
I’d think that such attacks are harder to justify on Koranic principles than even al-Qaeda’s attacks. Muslims killing other Muslims while they’re trying to play volleyball? Because they don’t want to host armed insurgents? I can’t imagine how they could justify it religiously. Is this something new? Or is it just an expansion on what’s already been going on?
