Pakistan Dispatch - Newsflash: Countdown and Upsurge

Pakistani news channels are reporting that there has been an explosion in Swat, killing over 30 people. The explostion occured in an that is supposed to have been cleared by the army. Here is the BBC story.

To anyone keeping count, this is the fourth major attack by militants in a week.

The attacks are increasing as official pronouncements suggest the operation is coming closer to kick off time. The Dawn newspaper had an article today saying it would be launched in the next 48 hours. The sourcing, however, looked a bit dodgy.

Londonstani has not seen this reported in Western newsagencies, but earlier this morning Express TC, one of the local channels, was reporting two other smaller attacks; one in Faisalabad, Pakistan's third largest city. Either these are considered too minor to report, or the channel screwed up. It's worth mentioning here, that Londonstani has worked for a newsagency in the past were there was an unofficial policy of reporting deaths. The general rule of thumb was; 1 foreigner (Western) was equal to 10 locals. In other words, an incident that killed 8 locals, was not deemed worthy of coverage.