The modest office where Sarfraz Naeemi kept his library and received visitors seeking spiritual guidance is now a charred hole. The floor is strewn with burned pages, glass shards and ball bearings from a young suicide bomber’s lethal vest.
Even though this cultured provincial capital is fast becoming used to bombings, the assassination of Naeemi, a scholarly cleric who promoted religious harmony and spoke out against Taliban extremism, has resonated far beyond the blackened walls and shattered windows of the quiet seminary he headed here.
This murder so angered the people of Pakistan, that the Pakistani Air Force launched air attacks on Taliban hideouts in retaliation. That made me wonder why they didn’t do that before. Is it an intel problem or a lack of will that has allowed Taliban to spread across the northern provinces?