PESHAWAR: It is, once again, the time of the year when life seems as if it is sealed. The two sects of Muslims -- Shia and Sunni -- seem to be segregated despite being the followers of the same religion and residents of the same area.

The first month of Islamic year, Muharram, means sacred. It is one of those four months which have been mentioned as sacred in the Holy Quran.

However, too many security checks and threat of terrorist attacks on processions have turned this sacred month into a time of year when life seems still and fear of attacks lurks around.

Almost every route, even the one leading to one’s home, is closed. People have to tolerate this blockade either because they are used to this yearly exercise or just because they have no other option.

People have become accustomed to blockaded roads in Muharram as it is a yearly exercise

However, more worrisome is the fact that with every passing year the two Muslim sects are drifting apart. The targeted killing of the members of Shia community in the recent years is a fact that no one can deny.

“I can still remember the time when the entire locality, irrespective of their sect, would participate in distributing food as ‘Niyaz’ (alms).” Shakil Ahmed told Dawn. He said that Sunnis would go to Imambargah just as Shias for ‘Mannat’ or supplication.

Shakil said that a tragic clash between the two sects in 1992 at Kohati Chowk, Peshawar could be one instance that showed that someone had poisoned the unity.

Now just about six kilometres from his workplace, he has to cross so many checkpoints and hurdles to reach his home during Muharram as security arrangements are getting tighter with every passing year because the threat of attacks on Muharram processions is also getting bigger.

“I can remember how I went to accompany my Shia neighbour to an Imambargah. There was peace between the two sects,” said Sara, a member of Sunni community.

However, now Sunnis, after identified by their Computerised National Identity Card, are not allowed to pass by the Imambargah due to security threats on 9th and 10th Muharram.

Some people, who live in sensitive areas close to Imambargahs, try to reach home before the start of processions to avoid inconvenience.

However, the large numbers of Shia women, who used to go to Imambargah to offer special prayers during the first ten days of Muharram, have also decreased as security checks and hurdles have instilled a fear in their hearts.

Perhaps the same security concerns have forced the administration of some of the educational institutions to make special arrangements for their Shia students.

“A room has been specified for Shia boys to go and mourn there. Sunni boys are not allowed to go near there,” said a student of a college near Peshawar while sharing how they observe Muharram in their educational institution.

The gesture from the college administration may be based on ‘good-will’ and in view of the religious extremism, which has spread like a cancer, for the safety of the boys. However, it also shows that how sectarian segregation is now visible even in educational institutions.

Words like ‘religious harmony’, ‘Muslim brotherhood’ and this month being ‘sacred’ seem meaningless in this real world of suicide bombers and target killers when a youth from Parachinar, studying in a public sector university in Islamabad, says that a hall has been specified for the Shia students to offer their prayers there. It is sad to see the followers of a certain Muslim sect finding themselves secure in a room.

More disappointing are the institutions that should be uniting people than segregating them on the basis of their sect.

The educational institutions, which encourage such sectarian segregation instead of promoting harmony, are making a society where targeted killing of one sect or the other is slowly being taken as something ‘normal’ which is the real threat to us all.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2014