Four buses were ambushed while going from Rawalpindi to Gilgit Baltistan; passengers were asked to pull out their CNICs and 25 Shias were killed cold blood. This attack was similar to the one in Harban area of Kohistan in February 2012 when 20 Shias were killed. The Hazara Shia community has for long been the target of a militant group.
Why have the intelligence agencies failed to nab those responsible for such dastardly acts and why are the security forces not eliminating those militant groups which want to conduct a sectarian cleansing by executing members of the Shia community and create anarchy in the country? Is it not the prime responsibility of the government to protect the lives and property of every citizen?
Attacks on Shias are nothing new and yet the state and the security establishment has failed to take any notable action against them. Rather they have intensified with the advent of the Taliban and increased militancy and extremism in the country. The Shia community has been pushed to the walls. How long can the Shia community remain defenseless?
Pakistan does not belong to a few thousand extremists and every citizen has the right to live in accordance to his own faith. It is not acceptable in a civilized world for one sect to enforce its ideology on the other sects.
It is time that those in positions of authority seriously consider how to prevent such anarchy and root out the menace of sectarianism and fundamentalism. Otherwise, Pakistan will not be able to survive for long.
