Massive bombing in Pakistan kills 130 people claimed by ISIS.

Supporters pray after a bombing killed 130 people. Reuters. 

A massive bombing in Pakistan has killed 130 people and has been claimed by ISIS, bringing fears of violence during Pakistan's election. Reuters. The bombing happened at a rally for the Baluchistan Awami Party (BAP) and continues a wave of violence at political rallies in Pakistan in advance of the July 25 general election. A second bombing, this one claimed by the Taliban struck the Awami National Party (ANP) killed 20 people. Though Pakistan has reduced the amount of violence due to an offensive in the border region that cleared out many militants they still have to worry about cross border attacks from Afghanistan. 

My Comment:

Sad news out of Pakistan and one that puts things in perspective. As bad as our elections were here in this country in 2016 at least we never had anything like this. I am worried about it happening here as political rallies are a very rich target for terrorism. Though we had some minor skirmishes at our political rallies at least nobody has been blown up. 

This is an attack on Pakistan's democracy. I don't really know anything about the political parties involved and I doubt either ISIS or the Taliban care. Targeting these political rallies probably isn't about any party in particular, but just taking advantage of all those people packed together. The main point was killing a large number of people very quickly with the damage to Pakistan's elections just a bonus. 

Pakistan is in the unenviable situation of having dueling terror organizations. Both the Pakistani Taliban and ISIS are active in Pakistan and I can't help but to think that this ISIS attack might have been an attempt to upstage the Taliban attack. If that was their goal it seems they have succeeded. 

This attack has been getting next to zero attention in the western media despite the fact that more than 130 people died. I know Trump is overseas in the UK right now but you would think that one of the most deadly terror attacks to have happened in 2018 would get more coverage. It just shows where the media's priorities are. 

I also think it is significant that this was an ISIS claimed attack. There is a small chance that some other terror group actually committed the attack, with the Taliban being the most obvious, but I tend to believe this claim of responsibility. 

Why? Because Pakistan is one of the few places left in the world that is easy for ISIS to strike. Though ISIS has been driven out of some of their strongholds in Afghanistan, they still control territory there. It's one of the only places in the world where that is still true and it is trivial for them to cross the border into Pakistan. We might be seeing in Pakistan some of the last gasps of the traditional ISIS organization...