According to reports, a bomb blast shook the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Wednesday, which littered the area with human flesh and blood and damaged crates of fruit. The bomb, weighing five kilograms, tore through a fruit-and-vegetable market leaving at least 24 people dead and 122 injured. Most of the victims were, reported to be, vendors and laborers from Fata and Waziristan. Some Afghan migrants were also among the casualties.

Pakistani news sources say that a Baloch separatist militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack. “We carried out the Islamabad blast in retaliation to a similar operation on us in Baluchistan.” The statement   was made by the spokesman Mureed Baloch of   the United Baloch Army (UBA)

Further  the Pakistani sources say that the involvement of Taliban from Afghanistan’s Kunar province could not be ruled out;  adding that police had arrested four Afghan Taliban who demanded a ransom of Rs20 million from a trader of Sabzi Mandi. The trader was a close aide of a former prime minister.

Pakistan is a multi-ethnic country with various religious sects. The issue of sectarianism has changed this country to a hotbed of terrorism. A multitude of political parties and religious ideologies seem to be the reason behind such conflicts which take the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians every year.

The serial killings of Shia minorities, particularly the Hazards in different parts of Pakistan, are the worst examples of sectarian strikes   which are carried out by religious extremists. They are attacked while worshipping and performing their religious rituals in the mosques, and   they are labeled
as unbelievers by Wahhabis and many other fundamental groups.

The terrorist attack on All Saints Church in Peshawar city of Pakistan last year which led to the death of more than 200 Christian worshippers is one more example of sectarianism.   Responsibility for this was later claimed by two Taliban-linked militants.

Taliban militants have changed the security of Pakistan for the worse. They are at the helm of terrorist groups which are involved in such terroristic incidents.

The multiple talks held between Pakistani officials and Tehreek-i-Taliban seem fruitless. A month which past without incident made the officials believe a great achievement obtained thorough the negotiation. However,   after that,   violent explosion messed up all the hopes and trust.

Of late the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leadership, particularly Imran Khan, has more than once praised the federal government for holding talks with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and also declared the peace process a success. But after the fruit market bomb attack it said that while enemies of the country had become active the government appeared to be sleeping.

The PTI expressed concern over the latest wave of terrorist acts and called upon the government to spell out measures it had taken following the announcement of its national internal security policy.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that an investigation was in progress and involvement of any group or sect in the blast was yet to be established. He added that separate teams would investigate the incident. One team will investigate in the capital and the other in areas from where fruits were bought.

The other side of the coin seems a highly ridiculous incident I have ever heard. Musa Khan, a 9-month-old boy, is charged of attempted murder by Pakistani justice. In a case that has heaped ridicule on the under-resourced police force; the baby boy was charged alongside four adults in connection with a violent protest in a Lahore slum in February. Slum residents threw stones at gas company workers who had tried to disconnect households that failed to pay their bills, leading the police to charge an entire family with attempted murder, including Musa.

The case became apparent last Thursday when the screaming child was produced in court, and had to be comforted with a milk bottle as a court official recorded his thumbprint.

Muhammad Yasin, the baby’s grandfather said that Musa did not even know how to pick up his milk bottle properly, how he could stone the police!

The case has attracted ridicule in the news media and provided fresh fodder for critics of the country’s dysfunctional judicial system, which frequently appears to suffer from misplaced priorities.

Lawyers say that the Pakistani police often lodge exaggerated complaints against poor families as a form of collective punishment.

The child’s lawyer has argued that children under the age of 7 cannot be prosecuted under Pakistani law. Musa was released on bail, till his next hearing.

Suppose the child has pelted the police with stone, can it kill the police or does the baby do that with the intention of murder? Can detention center knock some sense into a bottle-fed baby? How is possible for it to know why it is brought in detention center and kept separate from its mother? Indeed, one’s jaw will drop to see that a baby’s thumbprint is recorded by court officials so as not to repeat the mistake that he is fully blind to that. 

Now, I believe that a sensible person will charge the court with violating the law by such unwise action. Of course, this seems like a ridiculous joke that can be performed by a creative comedian. In   our real world, the performers, who have played the role of villains, will have to be punished for the action.

Mr. Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab Province and brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

I think the courts have better spend time and energy on prosecuting several notorious figures who are plotting terrorist acts and murdering hundreds of innocent people rather than playing such games. The greater tragedy is to see that many dangerous criminals have been remained free; however, members of poor families are spending time in jails.

This comedy is as heart-rending as the tragedy. In other words, on the surface the second incident seems comic; however it is tragic in real sense.