Violence Defies Pakistanis' Efforts To Define Their Nation
There is no more graphic example of the daunting challenges facing Pakistan's new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif than the bloody events playing out in the west of his nation.
Just over a week after Sharif was sworn in for a third term, at least 24 people were killed in a day of violence that underscored the threat presented by violent militancy to the fabric of the Pakistani state.
More than half the dead were female students, killed by a bomb. The toll also included nurses at a hospital that was the scene of a five-hour siege. Deadly attacks happen daily in Pakistan; these are being seen as exceptionally shocking.
The trouble began before dawn on Saturday when militants bombed and burned down a 121-year-old wooden villa that served as a rural retreat in the last days of a dying Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who's seen by Pakistanis as father of their nation.
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