Maulana Akbar Saeed Farooqi, senior leader of the ASWJ, says that they have conveyed their “thoughts and feedback” on recent killings to the government that has failed to break the ice between the two sides.

“We are not the only one who is blamed for Shia killings,” he explains. “When people from Ahl-e-Sunnat sect are targeted, the organisations of the other side are blamed. But one should look into these trends and must question why it is confined to Karachi.”

Maulana Farooqi says that, people from one community are targeted in an organised manner, when people of the other side are killed. He also blames ‘the other side’ for labelling every murder in its community a sectarian attack, which is not always true.

“Each day the city witnesses more than a dozen murders on an average with the majority of victims being from Ahl-e-Sunnat as they are higher in population than any other sect. If we were to follow the same pattern, we would see every murder as premeditated on sectarian grounds which would further ignite hatred. Murder of every Shia person is not a result of sectarian rivalry, but unfortunately that’s not the spirit on the other side,” adds Maulana Farooqi.

Following Musharraf’s ban on terrorist organisations in 2002 under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, SSP reorganised as ASWJ.

A notification issued by the interior ministry in March 2012 said the ASWJ was suspected to be involved in acts of terrorism in the country; therefore it was being added to the first schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. However, the curb neither affected the party nor its leaders and activists.

“There are ideological differences between Shias and Sunnis but they are not new and are known to everyone,” he states. “Since the two sects have coexisted peacefully for centuries, one questions the hate-peddling particularly in Karachi. Some elements do not want sectarian harmony but we distance ourselves from all these brutalities and we condemn killing innocent people from any sect or religion.”