The death toll from a bombing at Shah Noorani shrine in Khuzdar on Saturday rose to 52, with dozens of others injured. People at the Shah Noorani were performing dhamal when the bomb hit them and others.
The situation underscores the need for moving resolutely against sectarian terror striking at core of our society. Yesterday's Business Recorder editorial 'Sectarianism is anti-state', for example, has made some key points that deserve immediate attention: "Time has come that leaders of religious parties and factions should be told point-blank that they are guilty of drilling a hole in the bottom of the very ship they are on board. They may be asked do they want Pakistan to be another Syria, Iraq or Yemen that are being demolished brick by brick by none else but by their own brothers-in-faith nationals. In Pakistan, we are still some distant away from that kind of self-destruction. But should our governments persist in inaction against the fiend-producing seminaries, as seems to be presently the case, we would be left with no option but to be in the company of that unenviable league."
How ironic and unfortunate it is that Balochistan has been hit again; this time on the eve of inauguration of a trade route linking Chinese city Kashgar with Gwadar port by prime minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief General Raheel Sharif. The situation therefore brooks no complacency or inaction.