TUESDAY’S brutal sectarian massacre on the Karakoram Highway in a remote part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohistan district bore a chilling resemblance to the butchery witnessed last year in Mastung, Balochistan. As in the Mastung attack, passengers travelling in a convoy of buses, and comprising mostly Shia pilgrims returning from Iran to Gilgit via Rawalpindi, were pulled out and killed on the basis of their belief by men apparently in army uniform. Kohistan has not witnessed the sectarian bloodletting other parts of Pakistan have, yet it is possible the atrocity was carried out as communal tensions in neighbouring Gilgit-Baltistan spilled over. A few Sunnis were killed in Gilgit recently, and the targeting of passengers may have been a reprisal, with indications that the killers came from Chilas. Though Jandullah has claimed responsibility, it is unclear if it is the same group involved in past sectarian attacks in Karachi or a new one. Certain names have developed into ‘brands’, and it is likely that the absence of a central organisational structure has propelled other militant actors to carry out acts of terrorism using the name of more recognisable groups.

Unfortunately, no part of Pakistan is free from the scourge of sectarian terror. While Hazara Shias are routinely murdered in Balochistan, tribal-cum-sectarian violence has become a part of life in Kurram Agency; Karachi has witnessed several sectarian attacks; bombings and cycles of sectarian violence also occur in Dera Ismail Khan as well as south and central Punjab. Though the denominational schism has always existed, it took on a very bloody character during the Ziaul Haq regime, especially with the rise of sectarian death squads. Today, sectarian outfits in Pakistan have found common cause with pan-Islamic jihadis, fusing their anti-Shia worldview with a jihad-centric, anti-West outlook, which perhaps explains the heavy sectarian undercurrent in the overall rise of militancy in Pakistan. It is also troubling that overtly sectarian and jihadi concerns are now appearing on the same stage as ‘mainstream’ religious and right-wing parties, indicating the full acceptance of the former by the latter.

There needs to be greater vigilance where misuse of police and army uniforms is concerned. Also, buses and other vehicles must only be stopped at designated and clearly marked checkpoints and escorted by security forces when transiting ‘sensitive’ regions. Overall, while communities need to ensure such provocations don’t result in escalation and reprisals, it is the state that must do the most by identifying, capturing, prosecuting and punishing those involved in sectarian terrorism. If it fails to do so, the current situation may well give way to wider communal conflict.