The powerful bomb blast at Wagah on Sunday that claimed the lives of fifty Pakistanis and injured over seventy, has dangerous implications to peace in the region.
The Al Qaeda-affiliated Jundullah, a splinter group affiliated to Taliban, has been the first to claim responsibility for the attack. It stated that the attack was in retaliation against the Pakistan Army's Operation Zarb-e-Arab against militants in North Waziristan and the Khyber regions of the federally-administered tribal areas. (FATA) Jundullah, which was behind a suicide bombing that killed at least 78 Christians at a Church in last September,
But barely had the group claimed responsibility that terror 'experts' in Pakistan began seeing the ubiquitous "foreign hand". Brig (retd) Syed Gazanfar on Express News said that the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with the RSS had used the Jundullah to target Pakistan.
He claimed that India had expansionist designs in Afghanistan and by hitting at Pakistan when it was stretched in providing internal security due to the ongoing military operation in the tribal areas; India was trying to eliminate the possibility of Pakistan being a player in the region.
He also claimed that India wanted to lay its hands on the weapons and other hardware the NATO troops would be leaving behind in Afghanistan after the drawdown. Similar sentiments appeared in the Urdu press and websites originating from Pakistan. The nervous tension in Pakistan is spreading about India surging ahead economically after the elections of 2014.
The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) also claimed responsibility for the Wagah border attack. Its spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, called the Dawn newspaper supposedly from Afghanistan claiming that the Wagah suicide bomber was one of his cadres. He threatened, "We will continue such attacks in the future." A tweet by a handle claiming to be spokesperson of Ehsanullah Ehsan had also issued threatening tweets to India and Modi a few months ago.
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The increased intensity of the action against Taliban forces along the Pakistan -Afghanistan border and rivalry between the forces led by Imran Khan and the government headed by Nawaz Sharif has made the internal security scenario precarious in Pakistan. One should expect agencies within Pakistan to blame India for its troubles, and rake up the Kashmir issue especially in the wake of assembly elections in Kashmir.
Terror experts on Pakistan television claim that provincial governments and federal government were already on high alert expecting strikes during the holy period of Muharram. As per media an official government statement the interior ministry had deployed 32,695 troops of Army and paramilitary forces across 54 districts of Pakistan to assist police in maintaining law and order during the sensitive days of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. At various areas, 12 helicopters had also been stationed to extend air support cover throughout Pakistan with prior warning that cellular services may also be jammed for limited timings on the 9th and 10th day of Muharram falling on Monday and Tuesday.
Sectarian clashes between Shias and Sunnis have claimed hundreds of lives in the past. At least 11 people were killed and scores of others injured during Muharram last year when a group of people from the mourning procession attacked a mosque and a religious school of Sunni Muslims besides torching over 200 shops Rawalpindi.
Eighteen Shia Muslims traveling from Rawalpindi to Gilgit-Baltistan on a bus in February 2012 were stopped in Kohistan and massacred based on their religious affiliation by individuals dressed in Military uniforms. Jundallah had claimed responsibility for that act.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's relations with the Army and security agencies are at an all time low. He is unable to come to grips with the political challenge posed by Imran Khan and the inept handling of the dharna. Sharif should have ensured that the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies across Pakistan were focused on ensuring peace during the Moharram month.
There is palpable fear in Pakistan that if it is proven that the blast in Wagah had sectarian reasons then Shia-Sunni hostilities could spread all across the country causing chaos. It is probably for this reason that barely had the blast taken place that 'terror experts' started blaming India for the attack. Raising the Indian bogey has worked for Pakistan's intelligence organizations time and time again.
The views expressed in the above article are that of Mr. Ghazanfur Butt.