Is it because I'm an Other

as Edward Said would have labeled me that I can't see the logic behind the recent string of suicide bombings in Pakistan?

Yesterday yet another man blew himself up. This time, the suicide bomber detonated inside a small district court in Quetta, killing himself and 15 others, including a judge who was hearing a property dispute, the litigants, their relatives who were in attendance, and the six lawyers who were debating the case. Thirty-five people were wounded.

This was the sixth attack in a series of suicide bombings in the area that have left some 40 people dead.

As the New York Times reports:

A militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud, vowed to use suicide bombers to take revenge [for an airstrike against suspected militants in the tribal area of South Waziristan on Jan. 16]. Pakistani officials have not directly implicated Mr. Mehsud in the bombings while the investigations are under way, and he has denied any involvement, saying that his threat was an emotional outburst.

Mr. Mehsud is believed to have trained suicide bombers and sent them into Afghanistan, where there were 127 suicide attacks last year."

South Waziristan, for those of you whose Pakistani geography might be a little vague, is part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. This is an area that is only nominally under Pakistan's control, and as Wikipedia notes, about 30% of the FATA is inaccessible both politically and administratively. In other words, the Pakistani central government has no authority in about a third of this Tribal Area.

This is the area in Pakistan, incidentally, in which many experts believe bin Laden may be hiding. The Waziris are a subset of the Pashtuns, the primary ethnic group of the Taliban, the Afghan government that so kindly gave bin Laden refuge up until they were forced out of power by the U.S.-led coaltion in 2001.

Map courtesy of Wikipedia

Now while I suppose I can see why "militants" in the neighboring province of Baluchistan might want to avenge any act that aimed to harm their friends in Al Qaeda, I really can't see the logic in why they would have targeted a courtroom in Quetta.

I wonder if anyone who isn't an Other could kindly inform me of the strategy here. My email address is at the top of this page.