Another war

With Ashura imminent, the potential for sectarian violence becomes larger. This is a war that tends to get reported more in terms of numbers of victims than the reasons which underlie the conflict. It has been going on for centuries and the Pakistan victims of sectarian violence are part of a global casualty list that increases daily. There are no offers of peace talks on either side and there are no predictions as to when or how it might end. The latest deaths to very briefly make the headlines are six coal miners gunned down in Mach town, about 90 kilometres from Quetta. No organisation has yet claimed the killings but the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) has in the past claimed responsibility for similar incidents. The LeJ is a banned organisation but continues to operate seemingly without let or hindrance.



The coal miners were of the Hazara community that has borne the brunt of sectarian killings in Balochistan. The deputy commissioner of the area said, in a statement, that the men were Shia labourers and that their killings were clearly sectarian. The single survivor of the attack is in the Combined Military Hospital in Quetta. The killers escaped as they invariably do and there are no expectations of an early arrest. Within the last week, there was also an attempt to blow up a convoy of buses carrying Shia pilgrims on the National Highway in Dringar, Mastung, which largely failed, killing two Frontier Corps personnel who were providing security for the pilgrim’ buses. The killings will have ceased to be news almost before the men are buried and this war will continue unabated.

While plans for increased security, especially for Shias, during these days will have been put in place, the problem is much more deep-rooted and the solution cannot be narrow and short-sighted. There appears to be no government policy to address the issue of how to combat sectarian conflict and little or no effort made to catch those of any sect who perpetuate this most costly of wars. Violence can break out in the context of this fight almost anywhere in the country; it is fed by inflammatory sermonising in some mosques on Fridays and there is no nascent peace process now or was in the past. This is our war, its resolution ours to take — or not.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2013.

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