Is The Islamabad Mosque Blast A False Flag Operation? – OpEd

Even before one could get over the shock of Friday’s suicide bombing of the Khadija Tul Kubra Shiite mosque in Islamabad, social media was deluged by claims that this barbaric act was in fact a false flag operation orchestrated by the Pakistan army and its intelligence agencies. On the face of it, such an assertion sounds outlandish as it is tantamount to cutting the nose just to spite the face, but the details released by the authorities about this incident does raise suspicions that there’s definitely something amiss.

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that when the mosque’s security guards tried to intercept the suicide bomber, he opened fire at them before detonating his explosives among the worshippers, suggesting that the attacker failed to get inside the mosque premises. However, visuals of the devastation inside the mosque hall with telltale signs of a powerful explosion as well as eyewitness accounts contradict this version. 

Furthermore, the large number of casualties in itself leaves no room for any doubts that the explosion occurred within an enclosed space packed with people offering prayers.  Even a lay person would tell you that had the blast taken place at the mosque entrance, there’s no way that the total casualty figures [both fatal and non-fatal] would exceed 200, simply because worshippers adhere to prayer timings and don’t hang around near mosque entrances.  

So, by giving inaccurate details of where exactly the blast occurred, the official account of this incident starts with untruth sowing seeds of suspicion regarding its authenticity. Moreover, Asif’s claim that the attacker had opened fire indicates that he was armed and this raises many questions. Being Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad is a high security zone with a network of security check posts and though a person with explosives concealed on his person may be able to avoid detection, for an armed civilian to go unnoticed is highly improbable. 

The speed with which law enforcement agencies were able to not only identify but also carry out a detailed background check of the suicide bomber including his travel details to Afghanistan further erodes credibility of the official narrative. While the authorities may argue that it was recovery of the attacker’s identity card that enabled them to establish his identity, a photograph of the same released to the media raises more questions rather than providing any answers. 

Made from high quality polycarbonate material [plastic], the Smart National Identity Card [SNIC] purportedly recovered has some signs of minor damage. However, it doesn’t bear the characteristic signs of singeing/blackening due the blast, resultant fire and intense heat caused by detonation of a high grade explosive, and this is certainly nothing less than a miracle. 

With explosives strapped to his body the bomber would have taken extraordinary precautions to avoid check posts and hence for him to carry an identity doesn’t make any sense, especially when he was allegedly also carrying a firearm. As such, the supposed recovery of the bomber’s identity card with his personal particulars and photograph intact is a clear indication that it was deliberately ‘planted’ to ‘facilitate’ quick and indisputable identification of the assailant.

While this ploy worked, details mentioned in the identity card have created more suspicions. Under Section 9[1] of National Database and Registration Authority [NADRA] Ordinance 2000, Pakistani nationals are required to apply for their identification card within 90 days of turning 18. However, the suicide bomber was issued his identity card only last year- seven years after he had turned 18. 

Though this may have been due to delay on the bomber’s part in applying for SNIC, with the precarious security situation necessitating frequent requirement of proving one’s identity multiple times on a daily basis, it’s inconceivable that an individual could not only do without an identity card for seven years but also make frequent visits to Afghanistan as claimed.

The biggest dead giveaway that the Islamabad mosque could well be a false flag operation is Pakistan’s Interior Minister Talal Chaudhary’s prompt but unsubstantiated allegation that “Those who carried out the [Islamabad mosque] attack are the same [terrorist groups] sponsored and supported by our neighbours- sponsored by India and supported by Afghanistan.”

Analysts have ascribed several plausible reasons that may have forced Field Marshal Asim Munir to approve Islamabad’s Khadija Tul Kubra Mosque bombing, like-

• Using this incident to play the victim card to not only gain international sympathy but also allay the potential threat of being grey-listed by the global anti-terrorism watchdog Financial Action Task Force [FATF].

• Blaming New Delhi and Kabul for sponsoring/supporting this attack and using this as an excuse to create border tensions and probably even initiate token non-escalatory military actions along the Line of Control in J&K and Durand Line.  Then, citing the inescapable requirement of holding its Eastern and Western borders in strength to ward off any military response from New Delhi and Kabul as well as meet internal security challenges, Field Marshal Munir can wriggle out of his commitment to deploy Pakistani troops in Gaza, which is a decision that has invited widespread domestic criticism. 

• Diverting public attention from the Pakistan army’s military failures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [KP] and Balochistan through hyper-nationalism and stoking anti-India/anti-Afghan Taliban emotions.

Shias in Pakistan have historically been victims of sectarian violence orchestrated by Rawalpindi. Readers would recollect the infamous 1988 Gilgit massacre in which Gen Zia ul Haq’s ordered Pervez Musharraf [who was then a brigadier commanding the Special Services Group] to “teach Shias a lesson” after sectarian clashes broke out between Sunnis and Shias over moon-sighting for EId-ul-Fitr. 

Instead of using regulars, Musharraf organised an armed militia of Sunni tribesmen belonging to erstwhile North West Frontier Province as well as Sunni fighters from Afghanistan including Osama bin Laden and his men, and used them to “teach Sias a lesson.” What followed was a 16-day pogrom in which besides destroying Shia villages torching mosques and raping women, the ruthless marauders killed anywhere between 300 to 700 Shias. 

The 1988 Gilgit massacre is but one of the many incidents of violence perpetrated by the Pakistan army on the Shia community and rather than rely on adhoc Lashkars [armed militias] Rawalpindi has created its own dedicated proxies like Lashkar-e-Jangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan/ Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat. Rawalpindi's virulent bias against the Shia community was once again revealed during the 1999 Kargil war when it refused to accept the dead bodies of the Shia predominant Pakistan Occupied Kashmir battalions. 

So, by orchestrating the suicide bomb attack in a Shia mosque, Field Marshal Munir would be doing nothing outrageous, and being a Sunni with fundamentalist beliefs would help him overcome any moral or ethical dilemma.