Wherever it goes, the Taliban forbids public entertainment (unless they think executions qualify), music, videos, and movies, so this attack is both an act of intimidation against Peshawar, where anxiety has already been high, and one of “commanding the right and forbidding the wrong” (Qur’an 3:104, among others). “Pakistan: Heavy casualties in suicide attack in northwest,” from Adnkronos Internatonal, May 22:
Peshawar, 22 May (AKI) – At least 10 people were killed and more than 75 were critically injured when a massive car bomb exploded outside a cinema in Peshawar, in Pakistan’s troubled northwest. The bomb attack occurred at around 8 pm local time when at least 36 people were inside the cinema.
The suicide bombing is believed to be part of a militant backlash against the government’s continuing military operation in the Swat district of North West Frontier Province.
No-one had claimed responsibility for the attack late Friday.
But Senator Zahid Khan, a leader of the secular Awami National Party, told a local TV channel that the incident was carried out by members of the Taliban who slipped out of Swat and were blending in with local people….