Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Would Sectarianism Creep In?

It has been only few days that a terrible incident occurred in the heart of Kabul city which made more than thousands shed tears. The explosions left around seventy people dead and more than two hundred injured. It was the most deadly attacks ever made in Kabul since US-military intervention in 2001. As a result, President Karzai cancelled his European trip and soon returned to Kabul, asking the people to remain united against their enemies. Yesterday, tens of thousands of people, including top government officials and civil leaders, participated in ceremony arranged to commemorate the martyrs of the day of Ashura or the tenth of Muharram.

It was not only Kabul where worshipers lost lives, but Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif came under similar attacks by suicide bombers though casualties were far less in comparison to Kabul. According to security officials there were several other suicide bombers who were arrested before carrying out attacks.

Anyhow, series of attacks in Ashura showed that the masterminds behind them prepared since a long time for such lethal attacks, otherwise it seems quite hard to carry out attacks simultaneously in three provinces, two of which are in the list of top secured areas.

Though the attacks were big enough to horrify Afghan people, what soon emerged as nightmare for officials and civilians alike was the prospective or the fallout of the attacks.

Indeed the horrifying prospective even undermined the incidents themselves. Headlines and editorials all talked similarly about the intention of the attacks rather than about severity and inhumanity of them. In another word, they talked much about the possible consequence of the attacks rather than what actually happened.

The view that attacks occurred in the holiest day in Shiite Calendar and targeted Shiite worshipers specifically spook Afghan people of turning a new page in the history, colored with blood this time on the line of sectarianism.

During last few decades, thousands of people were brutally killed, millions mutilated and millions became forced refugees in the neighboring countries; communalism and ethnic clashes won the blame. No doubt, Afghanistan can not provide another war this time on the basis of sects. If anything goes wrong on the basis of sects, perhaps there wouldn't be a country on the map by the name of Afghanistan.

Thanks God, it seems that Afghan people learned a lot. Right after attacks, religious scholars and influential leaders all condemned the attacks jointly which disappointed culprits who wanted to stoke sectarian war. Their shared position against attacks indeed draws a promising future.