5 dead in Karachi mosque attack

retrieved from cnn.com
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up during evening prayers at a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Karachi, injuring more than a dozen people, after a shootout that left another attacker, a police officer and a guard dead. A worshipper was also killed in the blast.

A crowd outraged by the attack went on a rampage afterwards, torching cars and shops nearby. Eight people were injured in Monday's rampage.
The attack occurred during evening prayers at the Madinatul Ilm Imambargah in eastern Karachi, said Asif Ijaz, a Karachi police official.
The three attackers stole an automatic weapon from a police guard who was posted outside the mosque and shot him to death, Ijaz said.
Other policemen nearby opened fire, killing one of the attackers and injuring another. The guard was also killed in the shootout.
The third attacker managed to enter the mosque and detonate a bomb strapped to his body.
One worshipper died and four were seriously injured in the blast. Sixteen others were treated at local hospitals, said Zafar Hussain, an administrator of the mosque.
Police said the blast was weak, however.
"It appeared to be a low-intensity bomb because it did not cause major damage," said Mushtaq Shah, chief of police operations in Karachi.
About 1,000 outraged Shiites, many beating their chests in mourning, burned about a dozen vehicles, a restaurant, two gas stations and eight shops near the mosque, Ijaz said.
Two electricity transformers were also set on fire, plunging the mosque and the neighborhood into darkness, and mobs burned tires.
The suicide bomber was believed to be a man in his 20s.
Rauf Siddiqi, home minister of Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital, condemned the bombing and said security has been put on "high alert."
"These incidents are happening one after the other. We are trying to find a link between them," he told the private Geo television station. "This is a criminal and merciless attack."
The attack came three days after a suspected suicide bomber attacked a Shiite religious gathering during a festival at a shrine near Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, killing about 20 people and injuring dozens of others. (Bomb blast at Pakistan shrine)
Political and sectarian violence between radical groups within the majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims is common in Karachi.
Earlier in the day, assailants shot dead a senior official from Pakistan's largest Islamic group, after he was kidnapped from a funeral for another slain member of the party, police said.
Police found the body of Aslam Mujahid, 47, riddled with bullets near a college in Karachi's eastern Korangi neighborhood, hours after he was kidnapped, said Tariq Jamil, a senior Karachi police official.

6 KFC workers burned to death in Karachi

retreived from cnn.com
Six KFC workers burned to death

KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) -- Six employees of American fast-food franchise KFC were burned to death in Karachi during a riot that followed a suicide attack on a mosque in the southern Pakistani city, rescue workers have said.

Angry Shiites set fire to the restaurant after the mosque attack in which five people died on Monday night, but the bodies of those burned were only found on Tuesday morning, said Rizwan Edhi of the Edhi Foundation, a private emergency service.
"We recovered the bodies of the six people from the debris of the KFC early this morning. All the dead were employees of KFC," he said.
On Monday, at least five people, including two assailants, were killed in the suicide bomb attack on the Shiite mosque in the same Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of Karachi.
At least 18 people were wounded, four seriously, in the attack at the Mandinatul Ilm mosque, the latest incident of religious violence to hit one of Washington's main allies in its war on terrorism.
The mosque attack came just three days after a suicide bombing at a Muslim festival in Islamabad on Friday that killed at least 19 people, most of them Shi'ite Muslims, in the worst such attack ever in the capital city.
More than 100 people have been killed in tit-for-tat attacks by majority Sunni and Shiite militants in the past year.
Most of the attacks have been blamed on Sunni militant groups with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network which have been angered by Pakistan's support for the war on terrorism.
Analysts say the Sunni militants have revived long standing sectarian rivalry as a means to destabilize President Pervez Musharraf's government.
Shiite mobs often target symbols of U.S. influence after sectarian attacks as they accuse the government of failing to act to prevent religious violence.
The attack on the KFC outlet came just minutes after the attack on the Karachi mosque.
Mobs of angry Shiite youths also attacked a hospital, two petrol stations and burned more than a dozen vehicles.
Shiites make up about 15 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni population of more than 150 million.
Hours before the mosque attack, unknown assailants killed a provincial leader from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Islamic opposition alliance in Karachi.
Aslam Mujahid, deputy chief of Jamaat-e-Islami in the city, was kidnapped early on Monday and his bullet-riddled body was later found in an abandoned car in the east of the city.
Mairaj-ul-Huda, head of Jamaat-e-Islami's Karachi wing, said the party suspected the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a rival regional party that is a member of the governing national coalition, of being behind the killing.

Bomb kills 17 at Pakistan shrine

(CNN) -- A bomb blast at a Muslim shrine in Pakistan's capital Islamabad has killed at least 17 people and wounded many others, according to police.
An official at an Islamabad hospital said Friday at least 40 wounded had been treated.
Several hundred people were inside the Bare Iman shrine when the blast struck, police said.
Investigators said they had not determined what kind of bomb exploded.
"Some people say that it was planted under the stage and others says it was a suicide bombing," Islamabad Inspector General Talat Mahmood said.
Several hundred people were inside the Bare Iman shrine when the blast happened, police said.
Most of the dead were from the Shia sect, although Sunnis were also present at the time, police said.
Police officer Mohammed Sadique said the bomb exploded inside the shrine on the last day of a five-day festival, The Associated Press reported.
"It was like hell," said Syed Muktar Hussain Shah, 40, who had been waiting for a prominent Shiite leader, Hamid Moasvi, to address the gathering when the bomb went off.
"I fell down ... when I woke up I saw dead bodies around me," he told AP.
The shrine is about half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from the official residence of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
One worshipper who was hurt in the blast said he had seen a man dressed in a police uniform reciting the Quran inside the shrine -- believed to have been the bomber, AP said.
Police reportedly tried to stop the man but failed to prevent the attack.
CNN producer Syed Navqi in Lahore, Pakistan contributed to this report

The heat and electricity

Can it get any hotter in this house?? Can the electricity go out anymore?? Shakil was off today during the day and we both slept in until well past 12 p.m. We did go to bed late since we got stuck on playing UNO which is easy to do for us. I don't think we got settled into bed until after 2 a.m. So at 12 p.m. we were just laying in bed and then hubby says "make me some breakfast" which btw doesn't settle with me very well for some reason. I just feel like that sounds like an order but he swears that he's not ordering. Ha ha...yeah right he probably likes it. :-)

I went downstairs and proceeded to look in the fridge and see what I was going to cook up. I made some eggs, toast and some other stuff. I'm getting to where I just hate cooking because my kitchen here is just so damn hot. The kitchen is not very big and I just think there is no circulation at all. There is a back door in the kitchen in which has a screen on it. Shak always tells me to open the door but that really doesn't seem too help much considering there is a house right next to us and it's a concrete wall there. Geez. Plus, I can't turn on the fan in the kitchen because it will just blow out the gas flame on the stove. I miss electric stoves by the way.

Seemed as if the day was going by pretty fast. Shakil and I just sit at the dining room table after a meal and chat. When we finished he was starting to get ready for work. He had to be there by 5 p.m. and I needed some things from the supermarket. I was planning to make spaghetti - that reminds me that I wanted to make some custard and I haven't done it yet. Oh yeah, Shakil bought me this great Black and Decker food processor that I forgot to mention. This is just the neatest gadget. I don't have to do anymore cutting of garlic, ginger, onions, etc. This thing is the best thing since sliced bread - ok maybe not! ha ha ha Just a figure of speech. I just hate cutting up that crap. He brought back the stuff that I needed from the market and proceeded to just go have a seat and wait until he had to be at work. I had just finished using the processor for cutting the onions and the damn electricity went out AGAIN and what do you know - Shakil decides to go ahead and head to work. Go figure. It was getting so damn hot in there.

The electricity was out for a good 30 minutes and that 30 minutes felt like hours to me. I was cutting up zucchini and sweat was just pouring down my face and I could feel sweat running down my back - Gross! I just felt disgusting but I kept on going. Then all of the sudden, the electricity came back on. Thank God!!! I immediately went to turn on the fan in the kitchen but can't leave that on for long because I needed to use the damn stove again and that fan blows out my flame. I started the veggies that I was cooking and then proceeded to go to the drawing room which is right next to the kitchen. This room has french doors that mainly stay closed off because we don't use the room much. The good news is that this room has an a/c. Yippppppppeeeeee. I don't know why I didn't think of this before but I opened up those doors and cracked on the a/c. My God did it feel good to feel that cool air blowin' on me. I felt like I was a pool of sweat. So I left the doors open and closed off the other rooms downstairs. Surprisingly enough it cooled off the downstairs. The kitchen even became tolerable. I can't wait to hear what hubby has to say about me using that a/c. He already thinks that the electricity bill is going to be outrageous. Ha ha ha He knows I have to have a/c. It was over a 100 here today for God's sake.

Until later...

Bye for now.

Food poisoning?

Ok, so four months here and just when I thought I was going to be one of the rare ones that doesn't get sick here. Last week Shakil and I went out to our favorite chinese restaurant that is a buffet. We've been there several times and have never had any problems. I haven't had any problems with a single restaurant here. Shakil and I hadn't been out in over 3 1/2 weeks and we were wanting some chinese. The electricity had gone out again and we couldn't bare the heat inside. The chinese restaurant had a/c and electricity.

The next day Shakil started having some stomach issues and then the diarrhea started with him. He took some Imodium and that seemed to cure it for him. 2 days later I woke up with some nausea but really didn't think much of it. Later that day the diarrhea started and it came with a vengeance. I was having pure liquid diarrhea (sorry graphic) and the most horrrrrrrible pains in my lower abdomen. I would just be sitting on the toilet in tears because I was in so much pain. I was taking Imodium but it just wasn't helping me. Plus, I've always known that it's your bodies way of getting rid of the toxins.

The evening came and the diarrhea was still going on but did start to lessen some. Shakil had to go to work at his new job as he was still in training. He left his cell phone home with me just in case of an emergency I could get in touch with him. Our landline phone had been out. Shakil got me some more meds and also got me some pedialyte so I wouldn't get dehydrated. But unfortunately I was already dehydrated. He went to work and then at 1 a.m. I called him home. I couldn't even keep water or the pedialyte down. So now I was vomiting with diarrhea. It was just horrible. I also started running a fever. I was miserable.

Shakil was ready to take me to the hospital here in Lahore but I just tried to fight it off. The next day when I couldn't take it anymore he took me to a hospital that was recommended by his grandfather. When you first walk in there was a waiting area and then just a long hall in front of you. On the left there was a pharmacy and then there was a sign hanging where it said "Doctor on duty" Just odd to me. But anyways, we were seen almost right away. We were called into this room where the doc was sitting at his desk and there was an examining table. I explained what was going on and he felt around on my tummy and then told me that I needed to be admitted for IV fluids and antibiotics. He couldn't give me antibiotics by mouth because I just couldn't keep anything down.

I was taken to a room where there was a sofa, a hospital bed and 2 chairs. The sheets on the bed were not clean and the pillowcase was not clean either. There was even some dried blood on my pillow. Yuck!! But luckily I had my dupatta to cover the pillowcase with so my hair or my head didn't touch the darn thing. A nurse came in and put the IV in and she did a good job but did manage to make me bleed. Get this, the blood dripped on the bedsheet and she just put tape over it to cover it up. Disgusting!!! Everything else was sterile so that was really all that mattered to me. I spent a few hours there and by the time I left there I was already feeling much better. A day later I was starting to feel like myself again. Needless to say, I really feel like myself now.

I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone. It was by far the worst thing I have ever had to go through. I haven't eaten out since and not so sure when I will again. :-) The prob is that there is just some really tasty food here in Pak but I need to avoid it now!!

Everything else here is going ok. The heat is on though. It's been in the 100's. Yuck!!

Until later...

Bye for now.

social gatherings/new job for hubby?

Still feeling sort of 'blah' these days after hearing the news from the Embassy on another 6 to 8 months here. I think Shakil is handling it well and he's trying to remain so strong for us. We are STILL waiting to receive the forms that we need to use to file for the waiver. I did however finish my hardship letter and the paralegal advised that it would be a good idea for Shakil to write one as well. From what Shakil has told me, he only has 1 paragraph done so far. He better get working it on it. :-)

Shakil got offered a job to work at TRG. This is an American international company and I think after some time it could be very beneficial for him. However, the pay is not too good to start. He goes through a month's training that is from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Oh and it gets better. He would be working until like 4 a.m. once the training is finished. TRG is an American company so they work on U.S. time. Hence, that explains the working hours. When it's nighttime here in Pak, it's daytime in the U.S. He's still pondering over it. I don't feel to comfortable staying here all night by myself but it's possibly more money than he's making now. I did however tell him that I wanted unlimited internet if he accepts the job. At least I could keep myself occupied on the net every now and then and talk to my Mom much more often. It would also make it where Shakil and I don't have much time together. He'd be wanting to sleep while I'd be wide awake. I guess I could just go on the same schedule as him. Nahhhhhhh!!!!!! I told him to at least go to the training and really see what they have to offer. He has nothing to lose. :-)

Anyways, it's almost been 4 months now that I've been here. A couple of days ago Shakil and I were invited over to a dinner at his Abdullah mamus. I had been contemplating even bringing this story up but have decided to blog about it anyways. So we were invited over there for dinner. His mamu said to be there by 8:30 p.m. Initially, I didn't want to attend because of the segregation that goes on sometimes. You know, men in one room and women in the other. So I sucked it up and I told Shakil we'd go. So we got there at about 9 p.m. and it was me, his mami and his female cousin on one side of the room and then Shakil, his mamu and 2 male cousins on the other side of the room. His mamu did ask me some stuff to make conversation but the women really didn't say much. These particular members of his family have lots of money and I've noticed to be very "stuck up".
More people started to arrive and the room became very full. One of his other relatives did come sit next to me and we looked at the photos from the recent engagement of Shakil's cousin Haroon. They were great pics by the way. When Haroon's fiancee arrived with some of her family the men all moved to a different room and left all us women in this room. So Shakil left. That's when I start to feel uncomfortable is when Shakil leaves. He is sort of my support cushion (weird choice of words). To make a long story short, I had to sit in this room for about 1 hour and NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON talked to me. Oh I lied, 1 female cousin of his asked when we came back to Lahore from Karachi. Well la-de-dah. Can ya think of something better than that? I've told Shakil it's as if these women do not even know what to say to me because I'm American. They were just blabbing about clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc. I only know a few words in Urdu and that's what I picked up they were talking about.

It really does make a person feel very uncomfortable though when NOT ONE PERSON speaks to you or wants to carry a conversation with you. My feelings did get hurt. At 11:00 p.m. dinner was FINALLY served and at this point I thought I would be able to hook back up with Shakil. Unfortunately not. All the women went in first to get their food. It was set up buffet style. Then some women sat down at chairs that were against the wall but around the table. So I did the same. I basically just sat in one by myself where there was no one else sitting. You'd think that 1 person might have come to sit next to me, but nooooooo. Not one single woman sat next to me. So there I am sitting and eating all by myself. I felt sooo uncomfortable and I was so upset. Then all of the sudden, the women start to leave the room. I didn't know what was going on and nobody told me. I just saw men starting to come in so I knew what they were doing. I left the dining room and grabbed Shak and as I started to tell him what was going on, I burst into tears. It just really hurt my feelings that none of them would even talk to me. I do admit there were several there that probably didn't know me too well. But there were some that did know of me at least that could have started some sort of conversation. Sheesh.

Anyways, I've decided to take a break from attending any social gatherings. I just got so upset at this one and I don't feel like subjecting myself to it again very soon. There was another gathering the next night but Shakil and I didn't go. Shakil understands how I feel but he also thinks that I should initiate some sort of conversation sometime too. It would have been so hard that night considering no one was even looking my direction. They were all just talking amongst themselves. We'll see again when I decide to go to another one.

On that note, that's all for now.

Until later...

Bye for now.

Happy birthday to my Mom!!!!!!!!

Today is my Mom's birthday!!! I so wish I could be there with her to give her some big hugs!!!

Happy Birthday Mom and many, many, mannnnnnnnnnnny more!!!

Love always,

Tara

News from the Embassy

On April 27th, the embassy decided to finally call and it was just one hell of day. Shakil came home for lunch at about 1 p.m. and the embassy called on his cell at 2 p.m. The woman that called was talking to him in Urdu and basically all I was catching was the "a-cha's". I could tell by the look on his face though that it wasn't good. I started getting nauseated to my stomach. When he got off the phone he told me what was going on. They are asking for the I-601 waiver which waives his visa overstay. We were soooo hoping they were not going to ask for it. The woman says that the waiver takes anywhere from 6 to 8 months minimum but has seen them get approved in 3 months. (not holding my breath) Now they are also concerned because they need a hardship letter and I don't fall in the hardship category or at least I don't think I do with anything. We've emailed the lawyer. I don't even know what is classified as "hardship".

The lawyer has told me to compose a letter of hardship (which I just finished today) and email it to him, he'll make the necessary changes and add what needs to be added. He adds what they are looking for, etc. I have had so much support from my friends on the yahoo group, Steph and Colleen. If any of you gals are reading this, thank you so much for allllllllll your kind words of encouragement.

It is so hard being away from my family in the U.S. I think about going home all the time but I just can't without Shakil. He is my family now and I have to focus on that. He needs me just as much as I need him. He is the love of my life and my soul mate. I always have said you have to go through the shit to get to the good one's. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful, caring and devoted husband. I love you sweetheart.

We will not give up with the visa. We have been through so much and I feel that we can conquer this. It's not the end of the world and the visa is not denied. It's just one more step. We already filed one waiver to get rid of the deportation and that was approved. We can do it, I just know we can. :-)

Until later...

Bye for now.

oh and I will post the hardship letter that I did