At least four people were wounded in a grenade attack on Mobilink cellphone franchise in North Nazimabad last Monday morning. According to the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) it appears that a single group was carrying out attacks on cellphone franchises.
There was a similar attack on the Telenor outlet recently, and another franchise has complained to CPLC that they have been receiving threats. I hope I am not on the list of suspects.
The cellphone has become a vehicle of intellectual terrorism. Most of the SMS received recently are attempts at molding public opinion to support mindless fanaticism. All sorts of fun occasions such as New Year's Eve celebration, Shab-i-Baraat, even the Eids, Independence Day celebration, Christmas and Quaid's birthday, Devali etc generate irritating messages telling me to spend my time in prayer, condemn what is called westernised style of celebration or non-Muslim type of celebration which are dubbed nothing short of blaspheme.
I receive few useful messages. Most messages besides the above type, are also irritating. Such as advertisements for new and second hand goods, services offered by plumbers, AC repairmen, generator conversion, home delivery of groceries, wedding and funeral organisers. The last is the news service which includes arranging the transport, the person who will do the ghusal of the dead body and shroud it. At first I thought I would save that message, but since no one will check my cellphone for the name and address of the funeral organiser when I am dead, I deleted it.
The most irritating messages are received in the dead of night, at least past midnight. It is just like the landline telephone ringing at night. One is terrorised by the sound of the bell. One wakes up muttering "Allah khair kare" because night calls are invariably some bad news. So to wake up suddenly and find the message on the cellphone is nothing more than the silly woman who asks you to love her, or someone telling me to participate in a rally tomorrow to condemn the USA, make me angry.
This continuous onslaught of mindless messages has created in me what I call cellphone rage, which is like road rage. I want to attack the cellphone franchise through which these abuses of my intelligence are transmitted. I have been quite vocal in expressing my desire to do violence to the franchise; that is why I may be on the list of suspects who attacked Telenor and Mobilink outlets. Especially as the method of attack I have plan and vociferously express in all sorts of company is to lay my hands on a couple of hand grenades and lob them. Nobody has as yet suspected me, of course, but that is because I look so innocent and on account of my old age. Yet I could be suspected of inspiring the attacks or even masterminding them.
In my imagined scenario, the hand grenades I lob destroy the outlet's machinery and furniture, not the people. This is foolish wishful thinking. Grenades do not have the intelligence to discriminate between objects and human beings. I am not a murderer and that has stymied my attack plan.
The problem here is one of perception. An attack on installations and human beings are crimes of arson, vandalism and murder; but the attack on our intelligence through text messaging is not listed as a crime. It is time it is recognised as a crime. It is nothing short of terrorism because many people are influenced by the fear the fanatical messages generate. Otherwise sane people forward a message because it says if you do not then you will suffer. The SMS sender tells you that you must forward the message to atleast three other people. Once I got angry when a friend sent me a fanatical message. He said, "who knows the threat might come true, so I thought to be on the safe side I will forward the message." I told him he was never to call me again or I would come and beat him up. I was hopping mad with anger. I have not received his calls because I am quite capable of walloping him in public. But most people who receive these messages only feel victimised and, like my friend, forward the fanatical message, thus playing their part in spreading the intellectual rot and the pointless fear of the unknown.
However, who could be the people who attacked Mobilink and Telenor? In the former there were thankfully no deaths, but in the latter two employees were killed and two others wounded. Chief of CPLC, Ahmad Chinoy suspects it to be the work of a single gang since the method used in both attacks was identical and the outlets were in the same general neighbourhood. The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) claims the grenades in both attacks were Russian-made. The CCTV footage from the Mobilink outlet shows the attackers wrapped in shawls riding a motorbike. Cases have been registered by the area police but all their investigation will do is establish the nature of the crime.
Whatever the reason for the attacks, one point is to be noted. The attacks created panic. In short, the authorities should look into who wants to create panic in North Nazimabad. Cellphone franchises are vulnerable, just like mosques and imambargahs and shrines, because anybody can come and go. Therefore, vulnerable places are targeted with the sole purpose of creating fear and terrorising the people. I do not think anybody has targeted the cellphone franchises because they are irritated by mindless messaging and calls. It is not the target, it is the effect the criminals wish to create that must be considered seriously.