Attack in Hangu

For the past few years, the start of Muharram in Pakistan has become a period of tense anticipation. It has almost become a given that the Shia community will be targeted by terrorists during this time. The suicide bombing at a Shia-run hospital in Hangu, on December 10, that killed over a dozen people was a clear indication of this and such is the level of fear and resignation that no one would be surprised if it is not the last.

There will be those who try to draw a distinction between this attack and three others that took place in the country this week. On December 6, a suicide bomber killed more than 40 people at a meeting of anti-Taliban militias in Mohmand Agency, followed the next day by an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani. Then, just a day later, 16 people were killed in a suicide attack in Kohat, not far from Hangu. Just because this latest attack targeted Shias does not make it any different to the others. In fact, suspicion and hatred of the Shia community is as central to the ideology of the militant groups as opposition to the army and foreigners. It is no surprise, then, that the group taking responsibility for the Hangu attack, the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi-al-Alami, had also claimed credit for the assassination attempt on Raisani. The group is an offshoot of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, an avowedly anti-Shia group that has now allied with al Qaeda and the Taliban. This growing nexus between sectarian outfits and international terrorist groups represents one of the greatest threats to the country, as al Qaeda and the Taliban provide the logistics and training while the sectarian outfits have the manpower that together make them a fearsome threat to the state.

It is also unfair to blame the government for not providing adequate security. The truth is, the government had tried to do as much as it could. It had ordered all private ambulances to register with the government and installed walk-through gates at imam bargahs. However, when you have a determined foe with no respect for the sanctity of life, there is very little that can be done in terms of pre-empting attacks. Such attacks, unfortunately, now have to be accepted as a part of life in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2010.