Pakistani Shiites rallied to demand greater government protection on Saturday after a suicide bomber targeted a Shiite religious procession, killing at least 18 people and wounding 40 others. The bomber struck a public Ashoura rally Friday night in Jacobabad, a city in the southern province of Sindh, senior police officer Zafar Malik said. Local media reported a higher death toll than the government, saying as many as 24 people were killed. Malik added that mourners were preparing for mass funerals Saturday and that the government had protectively deployed extra troops to handle any “untoward situation.” Shiite Muslims, a minority in Pakistan, hold public rallies to mark Ashoura, a 10-day ritual that commemorates the death of Imam Hussein( A.S), the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad ( PBUH) and an iconic Shiite martyr. Some mourners whip themselves with knives attached to chains and women and children beat their own chests as they march in the streets. Sunni extremists who consider Shiites to be heretics. On Thursday, a suicide bomber targeted a Shiite mosque in southwest Pakistan, killing 10 people in Baluchistan province. The curse of sectarian extremism has also spread to Bangladesh it would seem, as for the first time in that country’s history Shia Muslims were attacked. An Ashura procession in Dhaka became the victim of a series of small bomb blasts that killed one participant and injured dozens of others. The attack has been claimed by a wing of the Islamic State (IS), which gained prominence in recent days for targeting foreign nationals in Bangladesh. The country’s Interior Minister is predictably in denial about the possibility of IS infiltration in Bangladesh and stressed that “no militants” were involved in the attack. There has been rising extremism in the formally secular Bangladesh and the ideology and practices of the IS are known to spread like wildfire. The country should wake up to this threat and act decisively before it too gets trapped in the grip of religious intolerance and sectarian attacks. The Shia population in Bangladesh is minuscule when compared to Pakistan, and this lack of numbers may leave them even more vulnerable. The three incidents within the span of 24 hours reveal that the climate of intolerance and violence is at an all time high. Forces of demagoguery and hate are all too prevalent in our society and even the supposedly “silent majority” retains tendencies of discriminatory behaviour. This is an overall depressing situation and divisions are not being done away with. Repeated attacks on any group foster a justified collective mentality of being persecuted and the outpouring of anguished violence in Jacobabad is a warning sign that should be heeded. As pointed out in this space before, in the aftermath of the operation against terrorists, their evolved modus operandi is to target smaller towns where security lapses are more likely. This complacency should be rooted out as such attacks have become a definite recurring theme. A more efficient attitude should be engendered in the police and security forces so they take these important duties seriously.
pk.shafaqna.com
