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October 6, 2004
Media Differences In Terrorist Reporting

The Canadian Press reported this evening on a bit of internecine Islamofascist infighting, which killed as many as 37 radicals as they gathered for a conference in Pakistan.

34 killed in explosions at gathering of Islamic radicals in Pakistan - Two bombs exploded at a gathering of Islamic radicals in the central Pakistan city of Multan early Thursday, killing at least 34 people and injuring dozens, police said.

Other media outlets weighed in on this story, but their reporting told different stories. Here's AFP (France) on the explosions:

At least 33 killed, 70 wounded in Pakistan bombings - At least 33 people were killed and dozens others wounded when two bombs ripped through a congregation of Sunni Muslims in Pakistan's central city of Multan, police said.

AFP doesn't bother to mention the fact that the crowd were radical militants or to report on the feud between the Sunni and Shi'a that is probably the motivation behind the attack. The Canadian Press article had all that, and earlier. The AP picks up on that, even if the headline writer gives no hint of it:

At Least 33 Dead in Pakistan Blast - Two bombs exploded at a gathering of Islamic radicals in central Pakistan before dawn Thursday, killing at least 33 people and injuring dozens in what appeared to be the latest in a string of sectarian attacks, police said.

The blasts came as about 3,000 people in Multan were marking the anniversary of the death of Maulana Azam Tariq, the leader of outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba group. He was murdered last year in an attack blamed on Shiite Muslim militants. His group has been accused of killing hundreds of minority Shiite Muslims in recent years.

The headline writer at Reuters, however, takes the cake. He turns the gathering of radicals into a revival meeting:

Suicide Car Bomb Kills 37 at Pakistan Religious Rally - A suicide car bomb exploded in central Pakistan, killing at least 37 people and wounding more than 50 at a rally for an assassinated militant religious leader early on Thursday, police said. ... Tariq's militant Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) (Soldiers of Mohammad's Companions) group was one of seven Islamic militant groups outlawed by President Pervez Musharraf -- five of them in a crackdown on religious violence -- in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Pakistan has been racked by sectarian violence in recent years, the most recent when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a mosque of the minority Shi'ite Muslim sect in the eastern city of Sialkot on Oct. 2, killing 30 people.

Hundreds of people had been attending the rally for Tariq.

Now if they would only keep targeting each other instead of the rest of the world.

Sphere It Digg! View blog reactions
Posted by Ed Morrissey at October 6, 2004 9:52 PM

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