Terror alert as al-Qaida arrests spark violence

Pakistan has barred major gatherings and sent police to guard mosques today after two devastating attacks killed 70 people within a week in suspected sectarian attacks – raising concern this key US anti-terror ally might witness a spiral of bloodshed.

The ban applied to both political and religious gatherings, but Friday prayers at mosques were exempt, and hundreds of additional police were deployed outside places of worship to head off any new violence.

“We are beefing up security ... our effort is to ensure the safety of all citizen,” Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told The Associated Press. He did not say how long the ban on gatherings would last.

The killing of a top Pakistani al-Qaida operative by security forces late last month appears to have spawned a bout of sectarian violence by rival Sunni and Shiite militant groups, despite government claims it is beating terrorism.

“I am scared now. How can I send my children to the mosque?” said Ishaq Chaudhry, 42, who owns a grocery shop in the central city of Multan – near where a pre-dawn car bombing on Thursday left 39 people dead and more than 100 wounded.

“We are alert and we have deployed additional policemen outside mosques belonging to Shiites and Muslims,” said Arshad Hameed, deputy city police chief in Multan.

The interior minister said today there had been “some progress” in the investigation into that bombing, as well as into the October 1 suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in the eastern city of Sialkot, which left 31 people dead.

Security was also tight in other cities, including the capital, Islamabad, southern city of Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Lahore and elsewhere, although people say they fear going to mosques.

However, despite the ban, about 300 human rights activists and lawmakers held a rally in Islamabad to condemn increasing violence against women, especially the honour killings, and asked the government to amend the existing laws to ensure that those responsible for such crimes are given tough punishments.

Violence against women is common in this Islamic nation, where men consider it a slur on the family honour if their female relatives have love affairs or marry without their parents’ consent.

Since the rise of Islamic militancy in Pakistan during the 1980s, this Islamic nation of 150 million has become familiar with sectarian violence – which has intensified since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf ditched his government’s support of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and backed the United States after the September 11 attacks in America.

Pakistan has taken the fight to Islamic militants this year, with bloody offensives along the Afghan border and a wave of arrests elsewhere in the country.

Sherpao claimed last week that security forces had broken the back of al Qaida in the country, after the September 26 shooting death of Amjad Hussain Farooqi, allegedly the terror network’s chief recruiter in the country, wanted for the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of US reporter Daniel Pearl.

But Farooqi’s demise has only heralded more violence.

On October 1, a suicide attacker blew himself up at a Shiite mosque in the eastern city of Sialkot during Friday prayers, killing himself and 30 others. No-one claimed responsibility, but authorities suspected it was retaliation for the death of Farooqi, also accused of a string of attacks on Shiites.

Yesterday’s attack in Multan appeared to be a response to that from Shiite radicals – targeting a gathering of an outlawed Sunni group, Sipah-e-Sahaba, that Farooqi had links to, and striking just hours after his funeral.

Farooqi’s notorious track record highlights the motives of Islamic militants in Pakistan – ranging from sectarian hatred and loathing of Westerners - particularly Americans – to rage at Musharraf for his alliance with Washington and his abandonment of the Taliban.

The schism between Sunni and Shiite Muslims dates back to the 7th century over who was the true heir to the prophet Mohammed. Yet most Pakistanis – roughly 80 per cent Sunni, 20 per cent Shiite – abhor the violence and live together peacefully, and even take part in each other’s religious rites.

“There’s a certain class, a very small minority, that feels very strongly about their religious views and have immense intolerance,” Jilani said.

Allama Hassan Turabi, a senior Shiite leader in Karachi, said the attacks against Sunnis and Shiites created an impression that the sects are fighting each other.

“But this is not the case. Had there been any such thing, there should have been fighting and killing on every street in every town of the country.”