A car bomb in the parking lot of the Shalimar Hotel in Rawalpindi was detonated on Monday morning. Aljazeera is reporting over 30 dead. ‘Pindi, as locals abbreviate it, is a twin city of the capital, Islamabad, and is security-sensitive because army headquarters is located there.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani military’s campaign against Pakistani Taliban militants in South Waziristan continued. A cell of expatriate Uzbek fighters is now being encountered.
Even though development aid holds out the best hope for resolving the problems of the Pashtun tribes with the central government, in times of war relief work becomes dangerous. The United Nations is now pulling its development workers out of the Pashtun areas of Pakistan, given that the current military operations are putting their lives in danger from the militants.
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