Premeditated violence in Karachi

Muharram could not have started on a worse note than the way it did with the killing, on the very first day, in Karachi of two scouts doing their duty at a 'Sabeel' set up by the Imamia Students Organisation. According to details, participants of a rally organised by the outlawed Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) were returning from a procession they had taken out to mark Caliph Omer's martyrdom day when some of them fired shots in the direction of stalls the Shia community had set up as part of Muharram observances, killing the two scouts on the spot and injuring a third. As expected, the incident elicited an angry reaction. Protests erupted in different parts of the city, leading to burning of a number of vehicles. At least seven people, including a private TV channel reporter, received bullet wounds as the Rangers resorted to firing to break the protests. Sadly, the incident does not come as a surprise. During recent years, sectarian violence, the seeds of which were sown by the Zia regime, has kept growing. All provincial governments therefore were expected to draw up special plans to avert any untoward incident. Considering that two years ago, ie in December 2009, a bomb explosion had targeted the main Muharram procession in Karachi, causing loss of life and setting off a wave of violence that did major damage to the areas' businesses, the government needed to adopt a high-level of vigilance. The way this Sunday's event unfolded shows a complete lack of caution. In the first place, the SSP shouldn't have been allowed to take out a procession - all the more so in view of the fact that normally the martyrdom day is observed in closed-door meetings. More important, the government should have remained in touch with the usual suspects to ensure they kept their cadres in control, preventing any resort to aggressive behaviour. What has been done cannot be undone, but those responsible must be brought to account. The incident ought to serve as a serious warning to all provincial governments to maintain the highest levels of alert in the coming Ashura days as well as during subsequent events. There is an urgent need also to look beyond the immediate challenge. The federal and provincial governments should put their heads together and think of ways and means to rid our society of the scourge of sectarian violence. Notably, although Muharram-related events did generate some sectarian tension in the pre-Zia years, they never resulted in bloodshed. Something, somewhere since has gone wrong, causing ceaseless bloodletting in the name of a faith that lays so much emphasis on peace and brotherhood. The reasons are political rather than spiritual. There is an urgent need to take a holistic view of the issue so as to devise durable remedial measures. That may be easier said than done, but it must be done sooner rather than later. Copyright Business Recorder, 2011