Ashura violence

The violent incident in Rawalpindi near Fawara Chowk, as an Ashura Day procession marched, on November 15, was a reminder of how much can so easily go wrong on occasions like this, given the climate of bigotry and intolerance in our country. Eight persons were killed and over 80 injured as unknown persons snatched guns from policemen standing on duty along the route and opened fire. Some reports indicated that a sermon from a local mosque had ignited the tensions that also resulted in shops being set alight in Raja Bazaar. The army had to be called in to control the situation. A 24-hour curfew was imposed in parts of the city, with the possibility of continuing the suspension of mobile phone services being discussed.

The killings in Rawalpindi, of course, marred a day of immense significance for all Muslims. But beyond this episode in the Punjab city, there were no major incidents of disturbance anywhere. The traditional processions proceeded calmly everywhere, including in Karachi, a city which has, of course, seen much violence in the past on this day. The disturbing thing, however, is that tensions started rising later on Saturday in parts of Punjab, which is not a good sign.

Barring Ashura itself, reports had come in of the police and law-enforcement agencies claiming to have prevented several planned attacks on processions. Although this is, of course, encouraging, there is still huge room for improvement as far as taking foolproof security measures are concerned. Unless this happens, it will not be possible to prevent the mayhem. Intelligence agencies need to play their part in this in a more effective manner, and we must, of course, hope such efforts can be polished and improved further over the coming months, enabling us to restore some sense of law and order in the country and rescue ourselves from a situation in which the writ of the state has virtually broken down putting us all at peril. Let us hope that the state of our security situation improves so that mayhem of the kind seen in Rawalpindi can be avoided at all costs.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2013.

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