The largest synchronized prayer offering in the World

On March 15, 2008 another bomb - the fifth in six years - shattered the otherwise tranquil ambience of Pakistan's capital nestled in a verdant plateau at the foothills of the Himalayas. This time in addition to the usual Pakistani casualties, there were American, Briton, Japanese, Turk and Canadian casualties as well. That has to be doubly painful to a people who seek international economic integration to improve their lot and pride themselves on their legendary hospitality. With this latest attempt to destabilize this rapidly developing economy with poverty and resources challenges, emerging populist democracy with a history of Military dictatorship, nuclear and missile power, and key leader of the Islamic bloc, it is important to take a fresh perspective on how do we get here and how can we get out of here. The answers have global implications in more ways then one. Other countries have successfully overcome nagging problems with terrorists - the Basque separatists in Spain, the IRA in Britain, the Baader Meinhoff in the erstwhile West Germany and the Red Brigade in Italy. How can this latest outbreak of terrorism be overcome?

Antecedents of the Conflict

Over the years, Pakistan has emerged as an incredibly resilient nation. Carved from India some sixty off years ago, few people gave the fledgling nation a chance of survival - situated as it was smack in the middle of the "Great Game" - a term, coined by colonial author Rudyard Kipling, that referred to the tussle between two great powers...