A recent suicide attack on an Islamabad mosque, which martyred and injured numerous worshippers this month, has starkly highlighted a persistent and deadly campaign by the Fitna-al-Khwarij terrorist group targeting sacred spaces across Pakistan.
According to official report today, the militants have frequently singled out mosques and imambargahs to advance their nefarious objectives under the guise of religion, with places of worship in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa being a particular focus of their assaults.
This pattern of violence was evident throughout 2023, with devastating explosions in two separate mosques at Police Lines Peshawar and Hangu, which martyred dozens of people and injured many others.
The historical record of such atrocities is extensive. In March 2022, a bomb blast at the Kucha Risaldaar Mosque in Peshawar claimed the lives of several innocent people, while a car bomb explosion near a mosque in Parachinar in March 2017 resulted in countless civilian casualties.
Further incidents underscore the group”s long-running war on worshippers, including a suicide attack in Mohmand district in September 2016 and a fatal explosion at a Shikarpur mosque in January 2015.
Going back more than a decade, a suicide bombing at a mosque in Parachinar Bazaar in February 2012 also martyred several worshippers. Similarly, numerous other suicide blasts at religious sites in Darra Adamkhel, Kurram District, and Kohat have claimed the lives of dozens more.
In response to this wave of violence, eminent religious scholars and Ulema have categorically stated that those who target innocent people in places of worship can never be followers of Islam. They stress that the faith promotes a message of peace and teaches that killing an innocent person is tantamount to the killing of all humanity.
On the other hand, it has also been noted as a fact that the Afghan Taliban regime has never issued a condemnation of these repeated incidents targeting mosques in Pakistan.