If Pakistan thought that its ability to strike a balance between its acceptance of Islamist on its territory and the fight against radical factions of the Taliban was a good one, the Taliban in Pakistan is quickly making sure that the balance is nullified.
The nature of attacks too, is daunting. More and more, the attacks are shifting from attacking police and other government interests, to personal attacks on Shi'a Pakistani. The newly sectarian nature of Al Qaeda's and the Taliban's attacks all over Asia, the MIddle East and Africa, is part of a new agenda. And it is increasingly widening in scope and intensity.
The changing dynamics of the Muslim communities exposed to this kind of warfare is one that is difficult to address and more importantly, even more difficult to contain. Once the spark is lit, and sectarian violence begins, the possibility of it devolving into a country wide conflict becomes very real.
And that is exactly what the Al Qaeda and Taliban rebels are aiming for. To throw almost every country with a large Muslim presence into chaos, in the hope of upending regimes or democracies ruled by Shi'a.
In Pakistan, certain areas were always difficult to govern. Waziristan and Balochistan are a prime example. Balochistan is even more remote than other areas, and its isolation and semi autonomous status, make it a particularly good region for Taliban and Al Qaeda groups to hide.
Now, however, the Taliban and Al Qaeda, are trying to separate Balochistan from Pakistan in an effort to carve out territory for itself in which they could at one point claim independence or at least full autonomy from Pakistan's rule.
The latest strike, which killed 22 people, involved a bus carrying Shi'a pilgrims. The bus was bombed as it transited a road.
Last year, the Al Qaeda affiliate Lashkar -e - Jhnagvi group killed 50 Shi'a in a terrorist offensive that lasted weeks. Most of the dead in that period were Hazara Shi'a, a minority within a minority so to speak. Hazara are notoriously shunned in neighboring Afghanistan.
Some Pakistani experts are calling the methodical and ruthless killing of Shi'a in these regions to be a veritable genocide.
The Al Qaeda/Taliban affiliate groups are so virulently opposed to Shi'a belief, that their intent is to convert every Shi'a to the Sunni belief, and if that person does not do so, they intend to ask that they leave Pakistan. This sectarian strife is not only in the outlying regions of Pakistan, but also in the mainland, since the objective of the Sunni affiliated groups is to operate in this way worldwide.
Some people also see a wider plan at hand. The Sunni groups are believed to have both logistical and financial support from Saudi Arabia. Some believe this is also in retaliation to Pakistan's support of Iran, a majority Shi'a country.
To make matters worse, some of the old timers, the Balochi separatists, who have operated in the area from times before the Taliban and Al Qaeda takeover, want nothing to do with Pakistan rule, and are complicating the picture with their shifting alliances.
The newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and many others who vied for the position during the past election ran on a ticket that promised inclusion for terrorist groups. But such a move seems to have backfired. The controversial move was supposed to allow the terrorist to have a voice, and therefore to quell their desire for bringing attention to their demands through violence.
But the hand that was lent seems to have been taken as a license to intensify attacks. Faced with a possible watering down of their mission, the terrorist groups have retrenched and planned for even more violent action than before. It was, in many's opinion, a bad move to suggest inclusion, since these groups are fighting the government itself and do want to stop until their rule is imposed.
Some advocate for secular parties to make decisions that are not based on religion. But such a picture is almost unthinkable in a country where even the scent of secularism is met head on with radical forces that wish to impose the strictest, Sunni style sharia law.
Source : Deutsche Welle/ 1.22.14
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