MILLIONS OF Shia Muslims performed rituals unchanged for centuries yesterday as they gathered in processions across Pakistan to mark Ashura, the climactic day in a month of mourning for the death of the prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussain.
Anyone who has ever attended Ashura ceremonies in countries with significant Shia populations such as Iran, Lebanon, and Bahrain will be familiar with the synchronised stomping of feet and pounding of chests; the sonorous rise and fall of chanted prayers; and the unrestrained weeping that characterises the day’s commemoration of the slaying of Hussain in the 7th century.
The demise of Hussain and more than 70 of his followers during a massacre in Kerbala in modern-day Iraq deepened the schism between Sunni and Shia.
His martyrdom at the hands of early Sunnis forms one of the central themes of Shia Islam, illustrated by the stirring chant heard at Ashura events: “Kul youm Ashura! Kul ard Kerbala!” or “Every day is Ashura! All land is Kerbala!” In Pakistan, as in Iraq and parts of Afghanistan and India, many Shia still cling to flagellation rites that have largely been cast aside elsewhere.
Bare-chested men flay their own backs with bundles of steel blade-tipped chains known as zangeel until they draw blood. Others cut their own scalps with long swords.
In recent decades, Ashura, the 10th day of the holy month of Muharram, has laid Pakistan’s sectarian tensions bare. Around 15 per cent of the country’s 170 million people are Shia.
Among the Sunni majority, many consider the continuation of the tradition of self-flagellation distasteful. Sunni militants, already hostile to Shia Islam, deem it un-Islamic. As Pakistan battles pockets of homegrown Taliban, the day has become a lightning rod for violence.
Processions and rallies have been targeted in several cities ranging from prosperous Lahore to Quetta in the restive southwestern province of Balochistan.
Last year saw one of the worst attacks – at least 30 mourners were killed when a suicide bomber struck during an Ashura parade in the port city of Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial hub.
“The month of Muharram that once brought Muslims of all religious denominations together under the symbolic flag of Imam Hussain’s martyrdom, has become a season of violence,” lamented an editorial in one Pakistani newspaper yesterday. “Why has Muharram become such a season of tragedies for us? The people of Pakistan are not fired by sectarian hatred.
“Wherever there is no clerical or terrorist coercion, they co-exist happily and, not so far back in the past, used to intermarry as well.”
This year security was heightened across the country for the eve and day of Ashura, both of which are public holidays.
Shops, markets and businesses in areas considered “sensitive” remained shuttered.
Tensions had increased following the deaths of 14 people killed when a suicide bomber drove a tractor laden with explosives into a hospital owned by the Shias in Hangu, a town in Pakistan’s troubled northwest which has experienced several clashes between Sunni and Shia.
Yesterday, a mortar aimed at two houses in the town resulted in the deaths of nine people. Police said it was a sectarian attack.
More than 6,000 police officers were deployed along Ashura routes in Karachi alone. In Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, almost 4,000 police were on the streets, along with scores of paramilitary forces.
The strong security presence did not deter militants from targeting a rally in the city on the eve of Ashura on Thursday. Local media reported that a young boy died when a grenade was thrown into the crowd.
In southern Pakistan, police said they opened fire on a suicide bomber who attempted to get into a rally in rural Sindh yesterday.
In Islamabad, Pakistan’s sleepy tree-lined capital, soldiers and police in armoured vehicles cordoned off roads leading to the Ashura procession. Many residents, fearing a possible outbreak of violence, chose to stay at home for the day.