Pakistan's security apparatus has gone into high gear after a weekend massacre of Shiite Muslims at a mosque, amid concerns that the approaching Islamic month of mourning could herald more violence, the interior minister said Monday.
"This morning I have ordered the provincial government to increase security at all places of worship, mosques, Imam Barghas and churches, anywhere where people frequently go for their religious obligation," said Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat.
Militant Sunni Muslims have often committed violent acts during the month of Muharram, when Shiite Muslims mourn the death of Hussain, the grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
In previous years, Muharram processions have been attacked. Shiite mosques, called Imam Barghas, have been assaulted and Shiite leaders have been killed. The month starts this year on March 3 or 4, depending on the sighting of the moon.
Most of Pakistan's 140 million people are Sunni Muslims, who live in peace with their Shiite Muslim brethren. However, violent groups from both sects have emerged in recent years and routinely clash. Most of the victims of the sectarian violence have been Shiites.
On Saturday, unidentified gunmen attacked the Imam Bargha Mehdi, a Shiite house of worship near the airport of the southern port city of Karachi, killing nine people. The gunmen escaped.
The attack dashed hopes expressed by the government that a political coalition of six religious parties, including both Shiite and Sunni Muslims, had overcome the rivalries and brought a new wave of peace.
Angry mobs attending the funerals of two of the massacre victims on Sunday went on the rampage, demanding the arrest of the killers. They attacked cars, stores, gas stations and a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.
Hayyat, the interior minister, said a committee headed by the Karachi police chief was established Monday to find the killers.
"We won't let them escape. We will hunt them down," he said.
Previous religious attacks have been blamed on the Sunni Muslim group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), which has been outlawed by the government. Members, contacted by cell phone, deny involvement.
In mosques and religious schools run by the SSP, clerics teach young students that Shiites are not Muslims and should denounce their beliefs and adopt the Sunni sect.
The interior minister also called on Pakistan's religious clerics to play a role in maintaining the peace.
Minority religious groups accuse militant Sunni Muslim clerics of using loudspeakers atop mosques to incite the faithful to violence.
At a meeting on Sunday in the capital, Islamabad, the clerics were asked to turn down the volume on their loudspeakers and told that "security measures have been further tightened to ensure the protection of mosques, Imam Barghas and processions during Muharram," the state-run news agency quoted the Interior Ministry as saying.