7 - 13 March 2002
Issue No.576
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 March 2002 Issue No.576 |
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Murderous legacy
Iffat Malik from Islamabad reports that the approach of the holy Islamic month of Muharram is coinciding with escalating tensions in an increasingly volatile Pakistan
Pakistani papers last week carried a headline that has become all too familiar over the past few years: "Worshippers killed in mosque." 11 people were killed and a further 14 injured as they prayed in the Shah Najam Mosque of Rawalpindi's Khyaban-e-Sir Syed area on 26 February. Two gunmen sprayed the mosque with bullets, while a third waited outside. All three escaped.
All the victims were Shi'a, a community that forms around 20 per cent of the Pakistani population. Sectarian attacks by Sunnis and Shi'as on each others' mosques have posed a big problem to Pakistan to the extent that mosques often have guards posted outside to prevent such attacks. The Shah Najam's private security guard was praying inside when the gunmen struck, and was one of those cut down by the machinegun fire. The police say they lack the resources to put all mosques under 24-hour guard. Orders had been issued only a few days earlier for police protection at Shah Najam to be withdrawn -- it was considered a safe mosque.
The problem of sectarian violence is not confined to mosque massacres -- there have been hundreds of other sectarian attacks on Shi'as and Sunnis with more than 2,000 people slain over the past decade in incidents of communal friction. Shi'as, not surprisingly since they form a minority in the population, form the majority of victims.
Karachi, the country's biggest city, has been a particular victim of this menace. So big is the problem there that thousands of Shi'a professionals have packed their bags and moved abroad. In July 2001 Shaukat Mirza, a Shi'ite and one of Pakistan's leading industrialists, was gunned down on his way to work in the city. Sectarian killings are gradually becoming more frequent in the north of Pakistan too.
But the 26 February attack was not simply another sectarian attack: it was also the first serious assault of its kind since President Musharraf's 12 January address to the nation in which he announced a crackdown on terrorism and extremist religious groups. The campaign the president launched is directed both against jihadi groups operating in Indian Kashmir, and religiously-motivated terrorist groups operating within Pakistan. One of the groups the President banned in January was an extremist Sunni group called Sipah-e-Sahaba. Its leader, Azam Tariq, used to make public speeches in which he denounced Shi'as as non-believers and claimed that their murder was legitimate under Islamic law. Pakistani police suspect Sipah-e-Sahaba was behind the massacre at Shah Najam. There is speculation that the attack could be the group's answer to the anti-terrorism campaign launched by the government -- a clear message of defiance and resistance to the authorities. Condemning the mosque attack, President Musharraf said, "Groups opposed to the government's policy of fighting terrorism are out to distract it." The recent killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl gives added credence to the interpretation that this attack is a "religious backlash." His murder has been linked to another group that was banned by presidential order, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.
The government's attempts to find those behind the attack in Rawalpindi, as well as Daniel Pearl's killers, are complicated by its own record. The problem of sectarian extremism has been plaguing Pakistan for years. But successive governments failed to take determined action against groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba because of their connection to jihadi groups allowing several sectarian groups to emerge as extremist offshoots. The widespread availability of arms in Pakistani society and the state's tolerance allowed jihadi groups to proliferate, especially as they promoted Pakistan's policy on Kashmir. Therefore, the government and army turned a blind eye to the sectarian by-products of this policy.
Many analysts see terrorist attacks within Pakistan as a case of "chickens coming home to roost." Government inaction and indifference in the past created a tolerant atmosphere that is now very serious and escalating beyond control. There was a realisation even before 11 September that internal terrorism had become a big menace and needed to be addressed. President Musharraf's government took some measures to deal with it through banning the public display of weapons and launching a de-armament campaign. But, by the government's own admission, the campaign has been a failure.
Now that the government has abandoned its Kashmir jihad policy, and is clamping down on jihadi groups, one major barrier to dealing with sectarian groups has been eliminated. But it still remains a daunting task. Some groups have been operating for years, are highly organised, well-funded and well-armed. The security forces, by contrast, tend to be hopelessly untrained and unequipped. They will need to be substantially improved before the anti-terrorism campaign begins to yield results.
Police in Rawlapindi and other cities of Punjab have arrested more than 40 suspects, most of whom are associated with Sipah-e-Sahaba. Rawalpindi's deputy inspector-general of police, Farid Nawaz, has conceded however, that: "The authorities have not yet zeroed in on the exact persons who carried out the attack." In addition, security at mosques and other places of worship has been stepped up. The authorities are all too aware that the highly emotive month of Muharram is less than two weeks away.
Internal terrorism has to be dealt with for another reason, too. Daniel Pearl's killing did untold damage to Pakistan's image abroad. The massacre at Shah Najam reinforced the perception that the country is unsafe. That, in turn, will cause anyone thinking of investing in Pakistan to think long and hard and quite likely opt to invest their money in a less violent place. Pakistan desperately needs foreign investment to develop its economy and, therefore, it has to curb sectarian and other violence.
However difficult the task, the government is now embarked on a course of no return: thanks to international pressure and domestic considerations it has no choice but to clamp down on all forms of terrorism and militancy.Ê But Pakistanis should steel themselves for more incidents like the Shah Najam massacre.
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