What a difficult, ugly place Pakistan must be to govern. A bomb hurled probably by al—Qaida into a radical Sunni religious rally killed at least 40 people. And the government swiftly realized the idea was to rile these people up enough to start a war of revenge against other radical rivals and ultimately undermine the Musharraf government.

More than  hint of al—Qaida strategizing in that. Hence, the government banned rallies to mourn the massacre. Ineffectually, it turns out, because 3000 of the radical Sunnis defied the ban to rally anyway. And sadly, this step taken is only likely to contribute to more rage at the government, and maybe a real feeling of oppression, because murder of this magnitude in a small city needs to be acknowledged and publicly mourned, even if the people are pretty benighted. The government had better be pretty sure they can catch the killers and bring them to justice because rage doesn't always stay bottled up. The test for Pakistan is on.   

A.M. Mora y Leon