DISTRESSINGLY, it has become a characteristic of today’s Pakistan that places and occasions of faith, devotion and prayer are regarded with trepidation.

As sectarian and militant outfits have gained ground, the mourning processions taken out on Ashura have frequently found themselves in the cross hairs of the militants.

The December 2009 attack in Karachi that left over 40 people dead stands out for the scale of its atrocity, but it was only one amongst a series of incidents designed to frighten and intimidate a community and the population at large — even if religiously motivated violence has, overall, come down in recent months.

Such bleak thoughts will dominate the minds of the citizenry today, given that the month of mourning has already been marred by tragedy. Late last evening, a suspected suicide bombing targeted a Muharram procession in Jacobabad, Sindh, killing at least 20 people.

A day before, at least 11 people were killed when a suicide bomber hit an imambargah in Balochistan’s Bolan district. The sectarian contours of these tragedies are obvious. This will only exacerbate the pressure on law-enforcement agencies today, and in the days to come.

Security has been beefed up across Balochistan and the rest of the country, but it is worth mulling over a comment made by provincial Chief Minister Abdul Malik Baloch: terrorists had fled to far-flung areas, he said, because of strict Ashura security in the cities.

This may well be taken as fairly accurate. In the larger cities and towns, the measures taken to protect Muharram processions are stringent and visible, though it can only be hoped that they are sufficient to stave off danger.

However, millions of people will be taking out processions all over the country today, many of them in small towns and villages. More citizens may be taken aim at by extremists looking for ‘soft’ targets on which to unleash horror.

Whether an attack takes place in a well-guarded city or in a more vulnerable remote community, the emotions inflicted on the citizenry at large are the same: fear, panic and grief — all of which are enhanced by the bloodied images that spill across screens and newsprint in the aftermath of the incident.

Here is where those who enforce the law must rise to the challenge, daunting though it is. All of the citizens of Pakistan are entitled to being provided equal and sufficient security by the state.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2015

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