Pakistan, a country which is mired in constant political and social turmoil. Chaos reigns supreme and the hapless proxy government can only watch religious fundamentalism spreading its evil tentacles to every nook and corner of the society. Despite what many may believe, Pakistan’s greatest enemy and threat is not actually India, but the greatest threat to its social fabric is posed by the doctrine of hatred propagated with impunity by religious extremists.

A couple of days ago there were chilling scenes in the Kohistan district of Pakistan. A convoy of buses was stopped by a group of gunmen and 16 selected passengers were massacred by them. Investigations revealed that all the victims belonged to the minority Shia community. This gruesome sectarian murders was not a standalone incident. A couple of weeks ago a similar kind of heinous attack were carried against the Shia community, which resulted in 26 casualties. In fact such attacks on minorities have escalated over the past few months so much so that hardly a week passes in Pakistan without any sectarian violence.

Such attacks are a culmination of decades of preaching of ideology of hate and intolerance by fundamentalists. A spineless government which does not have any political gumption to crackdown on such groups, has led to a major surge in religious extremism which has become all pervasive. The children from a very tender age are baptized in such philosophies in the local madrasas, which have mushroomed all over the country and act as breeding grounds for extremist groups. After persecuting minority communities like the Hindus and the Christians for decades and banishing them from mainstream society, it is now the turn of the Shias to feel the brunt of their hatred.

Sectarian clashes have consumed thousands of innocent lives in Pakistan since 1979. The theological differences between the Shias and the Sunnis have escalated into a full blown war by 1980. Initially the strife was pretty even but from 1990 onwards the tide turned against the Shias as the Sunni thugs received tacit support from the political brass.

Pakistan, currently is ridden with a wide array of problems ranging from wide spread poverty, illiteracy and shambolic economic development. What people of Pakistan actually need is a panacea to all their above mentioned miseries, which will not be found in religious extremism and intolerance. The time is nigh for the democratically elected government of Pakistan to make a stand for the sake of the people and for the sake of the nation’s future. This evil must be completely rooted out or else this Frankenstein will destroy its creator in due course of time