[DAWN] DESPITE efforts by the state to bring peace to Bloody Karachi...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, sectarian killings in the metropolis continue, putting a question mark on official claims. Within a week, over 10 people have been murdered in the Sindh capital in suspected sectarian attacks. On Friday, six people were bumped off in different parts of Karachi. Three men, reportedly workers of the banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat
...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous
bannedextremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the
political wingof Lashkar-e-Jhangvi...
, were rubbed out while returning from a rally organised by the outfit. In the other incidents, two members of the relatively apolitical Tableeghi Jamaat, along with a prayer leader, were murdered in separate incidents. The killings come in the wake of the recent attack on a women’s majlis in Nazimabad, in which five people, including three brothers, were murdered. Police say Friday’s violence could be a reaction to the earlier incident. On Saturday, police took into custody former PPP senator Faisal Raza Abidi in connection with the killing of the Tableeghi Jamaat members.
It is hoped these acts of violence do not inspire more tit-for-tat attacks. Community leaders, Learned Elders of Islam and the state must all play their role in ensuring communal harmony. However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
it should be reiterated that there is no Shia-Sunni conflict at the communal level in Pakistain as such. This country has thankfully been spared much of the communal frenzy witnessed in certain Middle Eastern states. Here, outfits like Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain
...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was
bannedin 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts...
(ASWJ’s old name) and its more virulent spin-off Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
have, over the past three decades, played an instrumental role in bringing the culture of takfir (declaring others as being outside the pale of Islam) to the mainstream, along with physically eliminating the sectarian ’others’. This, in response, gave rise to Shia bully boy groups such as Sipah-e-Mohammad. Throughout this period, the state’s response to the growth of sectarian militancy has been dismal, as ’banned’ outfits have operated with relative ease. Hence, to put an end to the recurring cycles of sectarian violence, the state must permanently dismantle the outfits that provide the ideological and material support for violence.