Nothing is holy. They now shoot in mosques

Another state of emergency took place in Pakistan. This time, Islamic guerrillas neither kidnapped foreign journalists nor carried out acts of terrorism in neighboring India. They rushed into a mosque and shot their own co-religionists, killing ten and injuring 15 people.

It should be said here that the victims practiced Shiite Islam, and the terrorists were most likely the Sunnit Muslims. These two Islamic movements have been very hostile to each other for a very long period of time. Conflicts between those two groups take place not only in Pakistan, although over 400 hundred people died last year in this country because of the religious feud. Just think of the longstanding contradictions between the Sunnit Iraq and Shiite Iran. Baghdad and Tehran are making efforts move closer to each other with the "help" of the American president. The conflict between Iran and Iraq has been more political than religious. However the religious factor played a big role in the propaganda of the feuding parties. Lebanon is also on that list because of decades of hostility between groups with different religious principles.

It is noteworthy that the latest act of terrorism in the Pakistani town of Rawalpindi took place against the background of the campaign that has been widely advertised by Islamabad: the struggle with religious extremists. It cannot be said that the Pakistani authorities are haunted by misfortune, but, on the other hand, the story with Daniel Pearl says a lot too: it is not going to be easy for President Musharraf to cope with all the kinds of terrorists. It may even be impossible.

For the time being, Musharraf took the situation in Rawalpindi under his personal control. Will it bring any good? The story with Daniel Pearl proves the opposite.

Vasily Bubnov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov