[Dawn] THE loss of scores of lives in bombings in Afghanistan on Tuesday and Wednesday has been tragic. Particularly alarming were Tuesday`s attacks on Shia mourners observing Ashura in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif. The claim that sectarian violence is new to Afghanistan cannot be made so easily. Hazara Shias were targeted by the Taliban regime, including significant massacres in May 2000 and January 2001. While these incidents were also driven by ethnic tensions it is difficult to argue, given the Taliban`s hard-line Sunni views, that they did not have a sectarian element. It is also true though that in recent years Afghan Shias have not been singled out in the same fashion. In this context a large-scale, clearly sectarian attack is a worrying development. Afghanistan is already torn along ideological, political and ethnic lines, and another divide is hardly needed at a time when security is being transitioned to Afghan forces. The Shia-Sunni conflagration that erupted in Iraq under the Americans is a reminder of how destabilising sectarian conflict can become in a country facing an ongoing war.That said, restraint could have been exercised before immediately pointing fingers in Pakistain`s direction. The only lead for this argument in the immediate aftermath was a phone call from an alleged operative of the 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 ...
, or an apparent offshoot, claiming responsibility for the Kabul attack. More evidence is needed before this connection can be made, and President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
would have done well to keep in mind previous knee-jerk accusations that have strained the relationship. For its part, Pakistain must take any evidence very seriously, as it might indicate a new ability and interest on the part of Pak bad boy groups in carrying out attacks in Afghanistan. If so this would mark an expansion of goals and a new level of cooperation with Afghan Death Eaters across the border, without which it is unlikely that attacks on this scale could have been carried out. If these incidents do indicate new bad boy aims and new patterns of collaboration across groups and across state lines, they serve as a wake-up call Pakistain cannot afford to ignore.