EXCEPT for some incidents of violence in Karachi, the relatively few sectarian attacks in the month of Muharram so far have allowed the focus to remain where it should be: on the sombre commemoration of an important period in the religious calendar.

Yet, it is today and tomorrow — on Muharram 9 and 10 — that religious sentiment will be at its height in the country and, therefore, it is over these two days that the state’s security apparatus must be at its peak vigilance.

The lamentation of broader societal trends and the spread of virulent and armed sectarianism on the fringes of society that has rendered what should be peaceful days of religious commemoration the fraught and dangerous period it has now become in Pakistan are focal points.

But on these two days, the goal of the state should be to ensure that the vast security, intelligence and law-enforcement apparatus across the country is able to keep the peace nationally — to ensure that no violence takes place anywhere, because sectarian hostilities have the potential to spread regionally, provincially and even nationally.

In the massive undertaking that will be the security precautions during these two days, the army will also have an important role to play. While soldiers are not policemen, there are many sensitive areas in the country where the presence of troops can help manage sectarian tensions and stop them from spilling over.

Moreover, the military’s intelligence agencies are perhaps uniquely well positioned to detect and interrupt sectarian militant activity and so will need to be on the highest state of alert.

Of course, the focal point will be the Muharram processions and the routes along which they will move. By now, the process of securing routes and ensuring the safety of participants in the religious commemoration should be a highly developed feature. But as last year’s tragic events in Rawalpindi demonstrated, the slightest deviation from established security procedure can have the most terrifying of consequences. On days such as these it is not just the overwhelming presence of security personnel that matters but also the fact that the security apparatus needs to be alert and focused.

The state owes it to the people who will come out of their homes to commemorate an important event in the religious calendar that the citizenry remains safe and protected from violence.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2014