ISLAMABAD — A twin suicide attack that killed 42 at Pakistan’s most popular Sufi shrine has angered and frustrated Pakistanis, with some saying Friday that the solution to the country’s terrorism threat is a U.S. exit from Afghanistan.
Most of the two dozen Pakistanis interviewed said that even if Islamist extremists were behind the slaughter at the Data Darbar shrine in Lahore, the root cause of the violence was America’s war in Afghanistan, its missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal regions and its alliance with Islamabad.
The wariness of the U.S. was all the more remarkable considering the attack Thursday was a direct assault on the moderate, Sufi-influenced Islam that most Pakistanis still practice and that the Taliban and allied extremists despise.
“America is killing Muslims in Afghanistan and in our tribal areas, and militants are attacking Pakistan to express anger against the government for supporting America,” said Zahid Umar, 25, a frequent visitor to the green-domed shrine where thousands had gathered before the bombs went off minutes apart Thursday.
There was no claim of responsibility.
