World View: Iran Closes Border with Pakistan after Terror Attack in Balochistan

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Massive Taliban attack at airport in Karachi, Pakistan
• Tens of thousands of families flee homes in Pakistan’s tribal area
• Iran closes border with Pakistan after terror attack in Balochistan
• Iran’s Supreme Leader complains young people are not revolutionary enough

Massive Taliban attack at airport in Karachi, Pakistan

Police display confiscated suicide vests and heavy weapons brought in by the terrorists. In the foreground are the dead bodies of the terrorists in white sacks (AP)

Taliban militants dressed as security forces stormed the JinnahInternational Airport in Karachi, Pakistan, on Sunday night and Mondaymorning, and at least 30 people, including 10 heavily armed gunmen,were killed in a battle that ran for six hours. Security forcesannounced on Monday morning that the attack had come to an end,but gunfire and bomb blasts continued to be heard into Mondayevening.

Jinnah International Airport is the largest and most prestigiousairport in Pakistan. It’s named after Mohammad Ali Jinnah, thefounder of Pakistan. Jinnah is revered in Pakistan, for his work withMahatma Gandhi to bring about Partition, the 1947 partitioning of theIndian subcontinent into India and Pakistan. When Gandhi was killedby a Hindu extremist in February, 1948, Jinnah called him “one of thegreatest men produced by the Hindu community.” Jinnah himself diedlater that year of tuberculosis.

Pakistanis are expressing outrage that the militants were able tobring into the airport a huge arsenal of suicide vests, grenades androcket launchers, without being detected by any airport security.Express Tribune (Pakistan) and BBC and South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP – India)

Tens of thousands of families flee homes in Pakistan’s tribal area

Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e-Taliban – TTP) has claimed credit for theattack. The spectacular Karachi airport attack comes at a time whenthe Taliban itself is having problems. (See “29-May-14 World View — Major faction defects from Pakistan Taliban, splitting it in two”) The TTP claimed thatthe airport attack was revenge for an American drone strike inNovember 2011 that killed Hakimullah Mehsud, at that leader of theTTP, whose death led to the split.

In recent months, Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif has been pursuing “peacetalks” with TTP. This pursuit was always something of a joke (likethe Mideast “peace talks”) because the TTP demanded TTP prisoners mustbe released from jail, the army must be withdrawn from the tribalareas where it has been fighting the Taliban, and the government mustagree to impose Sharia law on the entire country. It turned out thatSharif did secretly order the release of 19 Taliban militants from jail, in order to appease theTTP leadership, and those released militants are presumably outsomewhere killing more civilians.

The airport attack is being seen as a message that there is no chanceof “peace” between Pakistan’s government and the Taliban. They gottheir people out of jail, and they really can’t hope to get anythingmore, so now they’re continuing with violence.

Although Karachi is far away from Pakistan’s federally administeredtribal area (FATA), the airport attack is having a major effect there.The airport attacks have triggered fears that Pakistan’s army willlaunch a new campaign against militants in the FATA, and reportsindicate that in North Waziristan, some 25,000 to 50,000 people,mostly women and children, fearing violence from an imminent armyattack. and AFP and Bloomberg

Iran closes border with Pakistan after terror attack in Balochistan

In a separate incident, as many as 23 people were killed when asuicide bomber stormed a hotel where about 300 Shia pilgrims werestaying. The incident took place in the town of Taftan inBalochistan, on Pakistan’s border with Iran. The attack came when aconvoy of 10 buses stopped at two hotels. The buses were carrying thepilgrims returning from a visit to Shia holy sites in Iran, stoppingfor a rest in Taftan. There were two suicide bombers, but only one ofthem was able to detonate himself. The terror group Jeish Al-Islamclaimed responsibility.

Numerous Taliban groups have been attacking Shia Muslims inBalochistan for years, and Iran’s government has been extremelycritical of Pakistan for not stopping these attacks.Lashkar-e-Janghvi (LeJ) has publicly and firmly announced as its goalthe extermination of all Shia Muslims in Pakistan, and has beenmethodically setting off bombs in order to achieve that goal. OnJanuary 21, LeJ blew up a bus of Shia pilgrims returning from Iran,killing 24.

Presumably, Sunday’s incident was the last straw for Iranianofficials. After this incident, Iran closed its border with Pakistanfor an indefinite period, and all activities pertaining to travellingand trade have been suspended. Pakistan Tribune and Fars News (Tehran)

Iran’s Supreme Leader complains young people are not revolutionary enough

One of the most fascinating comparisons to come out of GenerationalDynamics theory is Iran today with America in the 1960s, at times whenthe countries were in respective generational Awakening eras, with therise of young generations following the last crisis war. In 1960sAmerica, the generations of traumatized survivors of the horrors ofWorld War II were determined to prevent anything like that fromhappening again, so they adopted conservative social policies andfought to stop the communists in Vietnam. The generations that grewup after the war had no patience with these austere policies werewidespread. The generational conflict climaxed with the resignationof President Nixon in 1974.

Iran’s last generational crisis war was the 1979 Great IslamicRevolution, followed by the Iran/Iraq war, which climaxed in 1988 withSaddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons. During the last decade,I’ve reported frequently on the political clashes between the elders,the war’s traumatized survivors, and the young people who do not likerestriction on clothing and dating, who love Western tastes andfashion, and who do not particularly want to sea Israel pushed intothe sea. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, who isdefinitely a traumatized war survivor, constantly expresses concernsabout the younger generation. In an address over the weekend, he saidthe following:

“Individuals who moved with sharp revolutionarymotivation have now changed their views by 180 degrees, and themeaning of the Revolution is incomprehensible to them and we mustbe vigilant so these characteristics do not penetrate theUniversity’s Jihad complex.

must not be allowed for this important scientific center to beinfluenced by the political maze of ‘leftists’ and’right-wingers.’

The production of destructive atomic bombs, is one hundred percentagainst humanity.”

Just as America’s generational split was settled with the resignationof Richard Nixon, Iran’s generational split will finally be settledwith the death of Ayatollah Khamenei, who is now 74 years old.AEI Iran Tracker

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