Nangarhar - Another Nagasaki

The US Air Force has dropped the “Mother Of All Bombs” on Nangarhar, Afghanistan. It was the first time this 21,600-pound bomb — technically known as a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, or MOAB — has been used.

The MOAB, which contains over 8,000 pounds of an Australian explosive called H6 that’s typically used underwater, is powerful: It has an explosion equivalent to 11 tons of TNT. In comparison, “Little Boy,” the uranium atomic bomb that the U.S. military dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945, had the explosive power of about 16 kilotons — or 16,000 tons — of TNT. “Fat Man,” the bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later, had an explosiveness of about 20,000 tons (or 20 kilotons). Units are key here; the level of damage caused by the MOAB versus nuclear weapons differs by a factor of 1,000.

However, the blast radius — that’s the distance from the point where the bomb is dropped — is comparable. MOAB’s blast radius is estimated to be about 1 mile, which is the same as the radius measured for the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Hollow argument of priorities

"It's all about priorities", is a sentence commonly heard from parrots. However, the priorities are rather contradictory and confusing, such as

"Bring peace first then play cricket in Pakistan. But improve sports first to bring peace."

"Provide ambulances and school buses first then improve roads infrastructure. But improve roads and transport infrastructure first then provide public transport."

Tax Evading Taxis

A notification by the Punjab Transport Authority stated that Uber, Careem and A-One taxi services are illegally using private vehicles for transportation. This, in turn, was causing the provincial government financial losses. They further added that private cars were being used to provide taxi services without the issuance of the mandatory car-fitness certificate and route permit.

The notification further added that security clearance of drivers was also not sought from the government hence stern action would be taken against such companies.