Ashura has come and gone and once again we witnessed tragedy being piled on top of tragedy as peaceful processions mourning the historic sufferings of the martyrs of Karbala were attacked by sectarian extremists. While 11 people were killed in a suicide bombing at an Imambargah in Bolan, Balochistan, 22 Shia mourners lost their lives in Jacobabad, Sindh. This too was a suicide bombing and targeted a procession while it was passing through its planned route. The blast was of high intensity (more than 10 kilograms of explosives were used), ripped through the area and could be heard for miles. Grimly reminiscent of the earlier Bolan attack, most of the dead were children; a further 40 individuals have been injured and many of them are still in a critical condition. The comparisons with the incident in Bolan do not end there, as given the similarly small nature of the town, medical services in the blast’s surrounding area have been inadequate and many of the wounded could not get appropriate and timely treatment. Eyewitnesses blame the local police for the lapse in security as they report a lacklustre number of patrolmen were covering the procession in the area where the blast took place. The religious grief of the mourners turned into personalised anguish and anger as protests broke out, the entire town was shut down and an emergency was imposed. The aggrieved protestors were understandably aghast and livid and as a result blocked roads and clashed with the police they hold responsible for the tragic loss of innocent lives. Senior police figures were also attacked: Jacobabad’s SSP’s car was pelted with stones while the DSP of the city was physically assaulted at a hospital. The outpouring of anger was compounded by the unavailability of doctors and paramedics, and a number of activists belonging to different Shia organisations ransacked a hospital. In response, the police used tear gas and aerial firing to disperse the crowd, which killed one protestor. All in all, this was the second deadliest suicide bombing incident to hit Upper Sindh. The next day, Sindh’s Home Minister Suhail Anwar Siyal informed the media that the nefarious Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) had claimed responsibility for the attack (in another parallel with Bolan), but despite this he then went on to bizarrely lay the blame for the attack on India’s intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), asserting that RAW “was active across Sindh”. The province’s Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah responded to the tragedy with the now typical strategy of promising monetary compensation to the families of the victims in order to quell the anger. The curse of sectarian extremism has also spread to Bangladesh it would seem, as for the first time in that country’s history Shia Muslims were attacked. An Ashura procession in Dhaka became the victim of a series of small bomb blasts that killed one participant and injured dozens of others. The attack has been claimed by a wing of the Islamic State (IS), which gained prominence in recent days for targeting foreign nationals in Bangladesh. The country’s Interior Minister is predictably in denial about the possibility of IS infiltration in Bangladesh and stressed that “no militants” were involved in the attack. There has been rising extremism in the formally secular Bangladesh and the ideology and practices of the IS are known to spread like wildfire. The country should wake up to this threat and act decisively before it too gets trapped in the grip of religious intolerance and sectarian attacks. The Shia population in Bangladesh is minuscule when compared to Pakistan, and this lack of numbers may leave them even more vulnerable. The three incidents within the span of 24 hours reveal that the climate of intolerance and violence is at an all time high. Forces of demagoguery and hate are all too prevalent in our society and even the supposedly “silent majority” retains tendencies of discriminatory behaviour. This is an overall depressing situation and divisions are not being done away with. Repeated attacks on any group foster a justified collective mentality of being persecuted and the outpouring of anguished violence in Jacobabad is a warning sign that should be heeded. As pointed out in this space before, in the aftermath of the operation against terrorists, their evolved modus operandi is to target smaller towns where security lapses are more likely. This complacency should be rooted out as such attacks have become a definite recurring theme. A more efficient attitude should be engendered in the police and security forces so they take these important duties seriously. Furthermore, the National Action Plan needs revision and more emphasis needs to be placed on a collective and coordinated response against terrorism. *