Pakistan's Sullied Shrines

Karachi's mosques offer an oasis of shade and tranquility in this sweltering city. But fewer Karachiites are responding to the muezzin's call to prayer these days. The city is experiencing one of its periodic spasms of vengeful warfare between extremist members of Islam's Sunni and Shi'a religious sects. Mosques are a favored target.

The violence erupted early last month when 32-year-old Sunni police trainee constable Akbar Niazi wired himself with explosives and blew up the Haideri mosque, killing himself and more than 24 Shi'ites. Next to die was radical Sunni Muslim cleric Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, 51, who was gunned down on May 30 while driving to his Binori Town mosque and seminary. The following day, a suicide bomber set off a blast that shattered the dome of the Shi'ite Ali Reza mosque, killing 21.

Strife stemming from ancient religious rivalry is depressingly familiar to Pakistan. Human-rights activists say that since the mid-'80s, more than 4,000 people have been killed in Sunni-Shi'ite feuds. Last year, for example, Sunni and Shi'ite gunmen marked each other's doctors and lawyers for assassination. President Pervez Musharraf waved off calls for the federal government to step in to curtail further bloodshed, saying he would refrain from "panic reactions." Fearing more attacks, a banker says he won't let his boys attend Friday sermons: "It's better to miss your prayers than to lose a son."