The Face of Terror

Police foil suicide attack at Islamabad airport, three wounded ISLAMABAD, Feb 6 (AFP) A suicide attacker opened fire at Islamabad’s International airport late Tuesday before blowing himself up with a hand grenade, and injuring at least three people, the interior minister said. The bomber headed towards the VIP section of the airport in a vehicle with two other men, and he began firing after security staff stopped it in the carpark outside, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said. “One of the men started firing at the security staff, injuring a member of the Airport Security Force, an elite police commando and a policeman,” Sherpao said. “They shot back at the attacker, then he tried to throw a grenade at them but when police retaliated, it fell from his hand and exploded and he died,” he said. “The suicide belt he was wearing did not explode, it was still intact.” Sherpao added. Police arrested the two other men in the car, and have cordoned off the airport over fears of further attacks, officials said. Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani clarified that he and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had landed hours earlier at the nearby Chaklala Airbase following a trip to the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar, and were not at Islamabad airport at the time of the incident. (First Posted @ 21:54 PST Updated @ 23:30 PST)

Abdullah Saab, an ASF officer who was an eye-witness and also injured during the attempted attack described the suicide attacker as a, "Taliban type." Despite the seriousness of the situation I smiled at this simple man's (may Allah Reward him for being true to his duty) choice of words, a obvious result of hearing a term resound much too often in the air.

Reminds me of a cover of our school magazine, Nomad that my friend Nur designed. That particular issue was printed in the winter of 2001. Nur had created a simple collage of Afghani children, children with their large expressive eyes and equally blank faces. Children in bright colors, children in bandages. He had written the simple title of, "The Face of Terror" on the cover. Naturally the cover sparked outrage amongst our American faculty members when all it really did do was show a face of terror we were too willing to forget then, and now.