IN Pakistan, sometimes a small spark can be enough to ignite religious or sectarian passions on a wide scale. This is especially true in the age of social media, 24/7 coverage and fake news. Perhaps aware of these fault lines, miscreants seek to spread trouble by either staging incidents, or playing up mishaps. This seems to be the case where the 2013 Ashura violence in Rawalpindi is concerned. The day saw a number of killings as well as arson and protests. The situation spiralled out of control when a mourning procession passed by a mosque; apparently, controversial remarks were made from the pulpit, which ignited the situation. The garrison city was put under curfew and the army had to step in to restore order. While earlier the impression created was of a sectarian clash between mourners belonging to the Shia community and Sunni worshippers inside the mosque, the ISPR recently painted a different picture of the day’s events. According to the head of the military’s media wing, the violence was staged by the banned TTP and the events were engineered to rupture “sectarian fault lines”. Maj-Gen Asif Ghafoor stated that “both the mosque and the terrorists who attacked and set fire to it belonged to the same sect”. As per the details, the militants had donned black clothes to appear as mourners and came prepared with weapons and incendiary material.

The security forces deserve kudos for unmasking the perpetrators behind the 2013 violence. However, the details that have emerged should also make all stakeholders ponder over the events and help formulate SOPs for how to handle such a situation in future. Ulema belonging to all sects must work to calm things down in case religiously sensitive issues emerge. Unfortunately, many of those behind the pulpit have often worked up zealous mobs instead of calling for calm. Also, security agencies must keep a strict watch over religious events to ensure that troublemakers don’t mix with ordinary citizens to incite violence. Working with the communities concerned and tracking suspicious individuals can help in this regard. The media, too, has a responsibility to be very careful when reporting religiously sensitive incidents. While communal differences are nothing new, there is little doubt that militants will try to use such misunderstandings to fan the flames of division. That is why such elements must be isolated, while the state and society should remain on guard.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2017