The ecstatic dervish of Karoondi, Faqeer Dur Mohammad Heeesbani, in a ghazal asks his uncaring beloved which route would she take to visit him next? She replies that she will choose the path which he can never dream about.

The above stanza is in line with an odd news about this year's Ashura. An abortive suicide attack on a religious congregation in a remote village of upper Sindh suggests that the suicide bomber had not forgotten his promise to resurface. Only, like Dur Mohammad's beloved, he had chosen a very unlikely place to strike this time. But this brings with it a grim realisation: religious extremism has penetrated Sindh and now is ready to strike at its secular and liberal roots.

On the tenth and final day of Muharram in Napierabad, now known as Shabbirabad -- the village of National People's Party leader and tribal elder Dr Ibrahim Jatoi and his brother and provincial minister Mir Abid Hussain Jatoi – in the Khanpur area of Shikarpur district, a suicide bomber tried to attack a religious gathering, but could not do so and was shot dead while trying to flee.

The choice of the target shows that the attempt was meticulously planned.

Had the suicide bomber succeeded in detonating explosives among the 500 plus participants of the Majlis, it would have led to several deaths, maybe those of the Jatoi brothers, too. And those who are familiar with the geopolitical situation of the area know that the sway of Jatois over the region is stronger than the writ of the state.

The backlash would have ignited sectarian strife and tribal warfare in Shikarpur which would have rapidly engulfed neighbouring Sukkur, Larkana, Qambar-Shaghdadkot, Jacobabad and Kandhkot-Kashmore districts. This could have quickly converted Sindh from a tolerant society to an intolerant one in terms of religion.

But the process has already begun. Socio-economic and political developments since the era of Gen Ziaul Haq have already dented the humane traditions of Sindhi culture, leading to the emergence of pockets of religious fanaticism in different areas of the province.

Mushroom growth of madressahs, coupled with the spread of religious TV channels and frustration with the existing socio-political structure, has influenced many an individual.

According to an observer, there are 1300 to 1500 madressahs in rural Sindh and many of them are located on main arteries and entry/exit points of cities, towns and villages.

According to Dr Inayat Magsi, the causes behind the growing acceptance of religious groups among Sindhi youth are no different from other regions of the country. The youth feel frightened, looted, hapless and hopeless. “The herd mentality is compelling them to seek refuge in religious ideology and groups which, in some areas, are challenging obsolete institutions like tribalism,”.

Hafiz Siddique Memon, a leader of a faction of nationalist Jeay Sindh movement who is a student of humane religious leaders like Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi, differs with Inayat Magsi.

“The extremists are a tiny minority which has always been present in Sindh. It has never succeeded in changing its social and political direction,” he insisted.

He refuses to see any reason behind the mushroom growth of resourceful madressahs, but admits that ancient seminaries, which do not promote extremism and lack financial support, are shrinking in number and size. “Some of them have been closed. At others, the strength of students has fallen.”

National Party leader Rahim Bukhsh Jafri, who hails from the tribal hinterland of Shikarpur district, does not think that the rise of religious extremism in Sindh is a temporary phase, warning that any attempt to ignore it will be ostrich-like.

According to him and several other analysts, the Napierabad incident signifies a qualitative jump in the strategy of what can be called local Taliban. It declares that they have come out of hibernation and moved from their low profile status to an aggressive posture.

This proclamation has been made publicly and loudly by none other than Senator Khalid Mehmmod Soomro, the provincial chief of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl), who can be called the key player behind the rise of extremism in Sindh.

At the largest public gathering ever organised by a religious party in Sukkur on Dec 9, 10,000 participants from across Sindh and neighbouring areas of Punjab and Balochistan swore on oath that they would support jihad and would be ready to sacrifice even their children for this cause. Mr Soomro was the keynote speaker at the gathering.