This time round, the callous remark was left to the advisor — read minister — of the interior in Islamabad, Rehman Malik, himself a former intelligence sleuth. He simply said Monday’s attack was “not expected”. The question that will be asked: does this government expect the terrorists to warn it before they strike? It took the army and paramilitary forces eight hours to secure the training school that came under attack, and while action was ongoing, there was no notable official on the scene representing the government or overseeing the operation. It is this sheer absence of governance that must be blamed for these two attacks, outrageous and daring, and within weeks of each other.

Lahoris are known for taking adversity in their stride, refusing to be bogged down; and they do it with a bang. They may forgive but they are not made of the stuff that forgets easily. Their sense of justice and fair play is unparalleled. Punjab politicians may be as corrupt as their counterparts elsewhere but there is nevertheless a certain morality that the people still attach to politics. Lahore gave Benazir Bhutto a historic welcome on her arrival home from exile to challenge General Zia in 1986. In 1967, it was the birthplace of the People’s Party at a time when nowhere else could Ayub Khan’s stranglehold be challenged, a birth which finally culminated in the dictator stepping down. In the 1988 election following Zia’s plane crash, seven of Lahore’s (then) nine National Assembly seats went to the PPP. In 1999, when Nawaz Sharif was overthrown by Musharraf, Lahoris celebrated his ouster by distributing sweets and breaking into bhangra. And just a decade down the road, on March 15 last, the same People’s Party cut a sorry figure when Lahoris defied the restrictions imposed by Governor Taseer’s administration and rallied behind Nawaz Sharif to get Iftikhar Chaudhry restored as the chief justice of Pakistan.

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