Carnage at a Balochistan shrine

Terrorists have stuck again, this time in central Balochistan's Jhal Magsi district, killing 19 people on the spot and wounding another 30, two of whom later died in hospital raising the death toll to 21. A suicide bomber struck at the entrance to a shrine as hundreds of devotees from various parts of Balochistan and Sindh were gathering to participate in a special congregation held on the 15th day of an Islamic month. Had it not been for a brave police constable, Bahar Khan, who sacrificed his life while intercepting the suicide bomber before he could reach the congregation, the death toll would have been much higher. His name has been recommended for a highly deserved Quaid-i-Azam police gallantry award.
No one took immediate responsibility for the carnage. An IS group though later claimed credit, which may or may not be valid considering that they are in the habit of making such claims, often repudiated by investigators. It could be the handiwork of any of the various terrorist groups like the TTP, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi or the IS, too. All these violent religious extremists share hatred for those going to Sufi shrines and regard followers of sects other than their own but within the faith as apostate. Back in 2005, some 50 people were killed and over 70 injured in a bomb blast at the same shrine in Jhal Magsi. It is worth noting that Baloch areas have traditionally been secular. Things started to change with various sectarian groups, especially the dreaded Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, establishing a foothold in the province as well as the rise of religious militant organisations like the TTP, some of whose splinter groups now pay allegiance to the IS. They have killed scores of Shia Hazaras and others. A while ago in Turbat, the TTP had also threatened to blow up girls' schools, which would have been unheard of in the past.
Some of the seminaries serve as breeding grounds of sectarian zealots are who ready to kill and get killed in the name of what they are taught. It was not without reason that the political consensus-based National Action Plan formulated nearly three years ago to deal with the scourge of terrorism, among other measures, called for registration and regulation of religious seminaries, dealing firmly with sectarian terrorists, and ensuring against reemergence of proscribed organisations. Unfortunately, there has been zero progress in all these areas. In fact, the then interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, trotted out various excuses not to streamline the madressah affairs, and hobnobbed with leaders of banned sectarian outfits. He also made a case in the Senate and later at a news conference for not equating the proscribed sectarian organisations with "pure terrorist', ignoring the fact that they were banned precisely due to involvement in acts of terrorism. One can only hope his successor, Ahsan Iqbal, is attentive to the threat these elements pose and planning urgent and effective action against terrorists of all hues.