After Benazir, Pakistan on knife-edge again

* Interior Ministry spokesman says Shia areas in NWFP face two-fold threat

PESHAWAR: Pakistani security forces, still reeling from the brazen assassination of Benazir Bhutto, are on high alert this week for an older but potentially far bloodier threat.

Troops and police have been deployed to areas of high militancy and sectarian tension ahead of the holy month of Muharram.

Pakistan’s recent history of sectarian violence, the dramatic rise last year of suicide bombings and the murder of Benazir has some security analysts predicting a bloodbath.

“Given the prevailing security situation in the country, we have directed law enforcement agencies to be on high alert to foil any nefarious designs of extremist elements,” Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Cheema told AFP. “There is a threat perception and we are not going to take any chances. Our security apparatus will be on the highest alert,” he added.

The two communities [Shia and Sunni] generally live in harmony. But violence linked to extremist groups from both sects has killed more than 4,000 people over the last decade, with some of the bloodiest attacks taking place during Muharram.

Two-fold threat: Shia areas in the NWFP face a “two-fold threat,” Cheema said, from ordinary sectarian extremists as well as Taliban-style Islamist militants.

Sunni and Shia tribes dug into hilltop villages outside the town of Parachinar used heavy weapons including rockets and mortars in clashes only last month that left more than 100 people dead.

More troops have been deployed to high ground around the nearby flashpoint town of Hangu, where 22 died in a suicide attack on a Muharram procession last year.

In Karachi, Shia leader Mirza Yusuf Hussain acknowledged that Bhutto’s assassination had raised tensions across the country. “This year we realise that the threat is more prominent after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto,” Hussain said.

He said police would receive help checking vehicles and setting up camps for participants.

Captain Muhammad Fazal, spokesman for the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi, said 10,000 troops would be deployed at “all important locations”.

“If needed, we have a 4,000-strong force in reserve to be called,” he said.

Abdul Ghafoor Hyderi, spokesman of the Sipah-e-Sahaba — a banned Sunni extremist group — said the simple solution was to ban all Shia processions. “We have suggested to the government that to maintain security and save precious lives it is necessary to observe all such religious rituals inside the premises and worship places,” he said. afp

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.