AT least 80 people are dead after armed attackers stormed two mosques packed with hundreds of people in eastern Pakistan on Friday. Sajjad Butta, deputy commissioner of Lahore, said at least 78 people were wounded in the assaults which targeted the Ahmadi Islamic sector. At least seven attackers were involved in Friday's assaults on mosques in the Model Town and Garhi Shahu neighbourhoods of Lahore, police said. The assault at Model Town was brief, and involved four attackers spraying worshippers with bullets, and exploding hand grenades, Bhutta said. Several Kilometers away at Garhi Shau, the standoff dragged on for hours, as police traded gunfire with at least three attackers. "They fought the police for some time, but on seeing they were being defeated they exploded themselves" he said. It is not clear whether police have been able to secure the buildings, and officials haven't provided any information about what happened to the people who were held hostage. Members of the Ahmadi Islamic sector are often viewed as heretics by other Muslim groups, and Pakistan's government declared the group a non-Muslim minority in the 1970's.Personally I am not surprised by these recent attacks. The tension between different religious and ethical beliefs in Pakistan is very high at the moment. The attackers that were responsible for the death of 80 people in the Ahmadi Sector, probably did so because of their belief differences. As the police mentioned, the Almadi sector is a place where the people who live there are viewed as being heretics by other Muslim groups. The issue oif religion is something that the people of Pakistan take much more seriously than we do in Canada. This is why I am not surprised by the attacks on the people of the Ahmadi Sector. I believe that the attackers will not stop as they did not want to just put fear into the Ahmadi people, they wanted to prove a point. I think the only way the attackers are going to stop, is to be caught be the police. Also, even if the attackers were caught there are most likely many more people like them in Pakistan who will carry on the attacks. In conclusion, I believe there really is nothing we can do to stop these types of attacks. There are many types of extremists that will do anything to prove their what they believe in.
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