Three people were killed and at least five were injured in yet another sectarian attack against the Shia community, this time on the Qasar-e-Sakina imambargah in Rawalpindi. A TTP splinter group, Jundullah, has claimed responsibility for the attack and termed it as retaliation against Operation Zarb-e-Azb. It would be in error to categorise all attacks as “backlash”, which is clearly the impression that the attackers wish to give. These attacks are not targeting state institutions or random people visiting some market. The victims are chosen on the basis of their sectarian identity, which shows that the attackers are working on a sectarian agenda under the pretext of “retaliation”. It would have made sense if the state and the military were run by Shias, but they are not. It would have made sense if the power to start and halt military operations rested with the Shia community, but it doesn’t. And yet terrorists are choosing them for ‘retaliation’.
By refusing to acknowledge that a particular community is under attack and labeling every attack as backlash like terrorists claim, the state cannot provide any solution since it is refusing to identify the problem. It is either doing this deliberately or simply doesn’t understand the situation. In any case, Shia Pakistanis are made to pay heavily for being who they are. If there is anything that has occurred consistently regardless of the operations in FATA, it is the targeted killing of Shias. While it is true that not all terrorist groups are solely focused on carrying out sectarian violence, most of them do subscribe to an ideology which justifies murdering Shias. Sectarian violence should be viewed separately from the wider security crisis faced by the country since it has been carried out consistently before and after NATO arrived in Afghanistan or military operations began in FATA. Currently, the state seems unwilling to take decisive action against overtly sectarian elements. In Rawalpindi, sectarian hatemongers roam freely while imambargahs keep getting bombed. The same is true for the rest of the country.