ISLAMABAD -- A volley of gunfire that followed a grenade attack last month in a small village two hours from Islamabad shattered the myth that the government had begun to effectively contain the country's religious extremists.
The 14 dead in that attack were all members of Pakistan's Shiite Muslim minority. The attackers were believed to be the members of a hardline Sunni Muslim group known as the Sipah-I-sahaba, which has campaigned for years for the Pakistani government to declare Shiites as non-Muslims.
The latest massacre in this unpleasant saga was not the first time that Pakistan's Shiites have became a target of the Sipah-I-sahaba. For Pakistan, the massacres of Shiites present a major challenge for internal security, political stability and foreign policy.