[DAWN] At first, Sunday's terrorist act seemed like just the latest in a long line of horrific attacks on religious minorities in Pakistain.Pakistain has developed a new concept: the sectarian state.
Talibs assaulted two Christian churches in Lahore. At least 15 people were killed, and more than 70 were maimed.
Targeting them is so much easier when they're all kneeling in their pews.
But then, all of a sudden, the targeted became the targeters.
Oops. The dog you kicked can bite.
Scores of enraged Christians marched through Lahore. They lynched and murdered two men. As they lay dying, some members of the mob gleefully took out their mobiles and captured photographs for posterity.
They prob'ly shoulda sold tee shirts.
It was sickening and macabre.
That's what it feels like on the other side of the sectarian divide.
This is not how victims usually respond to terror attacks in Pakistain.
We've noticed that.
Typically they grieve quietly, even if defiantly. Recall those Hazara Shias in Quetta standing in the cold rain, flanked by the bodies of the dead and refusing to bury their loved ones until receiving assurances of protection from the state.
And how many Hazaras have been killed since? How many Shiites of all ethnic persuasions?
This is in marked contrast to the violent retaliations in Lahore.
I'm surprised the madrassas haven't erupted in counter-riots yet.
Ominously, this reaction could mark the start of a dangerous yet sadly logical new phase in Pakistain's sectarian conflict -- one that deepens the fault lines of an already fractured country, and that could one day, bring it to the cusp of all-out civil war.
Makes sense to me. Y'got this Islamic paradise where Sunnis are pushing for religious purity. And then y'got everybody else. Throw in a tribal culture where everybody's looking to murder everybody else. See what comes out in the bowl.The only question is whether it sinks or floats.
I've argued previously that sectarianism poses the greatest threat to Pakistain's long-term stability. Sectarian militancy -- even after the much-ballyhooed North
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Wazoo counterterrorism offensive -- enjoys broad reach.The North Wazoo offensive is being diligently executed so that the wrong bad guys don't get banged. Reports of corpse counts have dwindled to nothing much. Mullah Fazlullah isn't dead. Mangal Bagh isn't dead. Even Mumtaz Qadri's not dead. When a big turban gets bumped off it's usually by accident and a couple thousand followers turn out for the funeral.
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 ...
, after all, has staged attacks in all four Pak provinces. Meanwhile,
...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him...
many Paks embrace the underlying views of sectarian Death Eaters; witness the polls that find that majorities of Paks do not regard Shias as Moslems. This isn't surprising, given how the Pak state has essentially institutionalised sect-based discrimination -- from the second constitutional amendment to the blasphemy laws. Then there are the troubling links between sectarian bully boyz and the state.
Lashkar-e-Taiba -- The Army of the Pure -- remains in business at the same old stand. There's not enough evidence in the entire world to even bring Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi to trial, much less to convict him.
In essence, sectarian bully boyz benefit from nationwide reach, ample public support for their views, and some support from the state.
Which would imply that Pakistain deserves everything it gets. And more.
Hence the dire predicament faced by Pakistain's imperiled religious minorities -- and the extreme measures to which some of them resorted to in the aftermath of the Sunday church bombings in Lahore.
In a secular state they'd all be of the same nationality. But the term "secular state" is verboten.
The Christians that killed those two men did not commit premeditated murder. They were retaliating, and for a simple reason: Like so many other religious minorities in Pakistain, they have been terrified, traumatised, and terrorised for too long, and they know the state will not protect them.
If you treat them like dirt their only recourse is to fight dirty.
So on Sunday, they decided to take matters in to their own hands.
Maybe next time an imambargah gets kaboomed the streets will fill with Hazaras with blood in their collective eyes.