'We are prepared to die,' claim
religious zealots in Pakistan

Mohammed Muslihuddin Irfan can recite all of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, by heart.

He believes Shiite Muslims are heathens, that fighting a holy war is his duty and to die in battle would automatically make him a martyr.

He's only 20 years old, but he says he's ready to die for his faith, whether fighting alongside Muslim secessionists in Kashmir or on the streets of the southern port city of Karachi against the country's minority Shiite Muslims.

"My teachers never discourage anyone who wants to fight,'' he said. "We are prepared to die. We are never afraid to die. A lot of my friends went to Kashmir and Afghanistan and died there.''

Irfan's madrassa, or religious school, is one of the biggest in Pakistan and closely aligned to one of the country's most militant Sunni Muslim groups, the Sipah-e-Sahabah, or guardians of the friends of the prophet.

Militants like Irfan are at the centre of a new wave of violence that some officials believe could threaten the stability of this Muslim country.

The violence ostensibly stems from antagonism among religious groups, but some say it reflects just as much the effects of poverty, high unemployment and easy access to weapons ranging from a simple handgun to rocket launchers and bombs.

To prevent more sectarian bloodletting during the Islamic month of Muharram, which began last week, police have swept through religious schools, the offices of militant groups and arrested hundreds of men, most of them members of the Sipah-e-Sahabah.

They imposed a curfew in the interior Punjab town of Jhang, the headquarters of the group. Its leader, Azim Tariq, has been jailed.

"We are keeping these people in custody just as a precautionary measure,'' said Peshawar police chief Attalullah Khan. The army has been deployed throughout the country.

Armoured personnel carriers are parked outside mosques in some of the more volatile areas of the country, like the southern port city of Karachi, the eastern Punjab capital of Lahore and Jhang.

Loudspeakers, which are perched atop every mosque and used to call the faithful to prayer five times a day, have been banned during Muharram.

The most volatile days are Saturday and Sunday, the 9th and 10th days of Muharram, when devout Shiites hold emotional processions to mourn the seventh-century death of Hussein, the grandson of Islam's prophet Mohammed.

During the processions, Shiites wail and beat themselves, usually with their hands, but often with chains and sticks until they bleed.

The Shiites believe that Hussein, killed by rival Muslim forces, was the rightful heir to his grandfather's newly founded faith, while Sunni Muslims believe that belonged to the companions of the Prophet.

On Friday in the upper house of parliament, Senator Pervaiz Rashid said that recent sectarian killings were as much a result of social problems as religious differences.

"There is a growing incidence of violence and sectarianism... Certain elements are bent on destabilising the country,'' the state-run news agency quoted Rashid as saying.

In the past two weeks at least 20 people have died in violence, most in the interior Punjab province.

Among the dead was the brother-in-law of Pakistan's powerful interior minister as well as several Shiite leaders.

The violence has caused some law-makers to publicly speculate on the possibility of banning the militant parties, like Sipah-e-Sahabah, which won one seat in the Punjab provincial assembly.

The Nawaz Sharief government is preparing tougher laws to deal with terrorism and to make it more difficult to get out on bail.

The financing of religious schools is coming under greater scrutiny. Pakistan's intelligence agencies have alleged that some radical religious schools are getting funding from militant groups abroad.

Mohammed Javed's son Qamar died fighting in Kashmir. Javed blames his son's death in 1990 on the religious school he attended in the southern port city of Karachi.

"I sent my son to learn religious doctrine and to recite the holy Koran, but just a few months later he suddenly wanted to fight in Kashmir,'' he said. "My son was brainwashed.''