The Sunni Muslims of South Asia are divided into two major sub-sects, i.e. Deobandi and Barelvi, named after their places of origin in India in the 19th century. Because of abiding differences between them, these two sub-sects have built up walls of hatred and mistrust between them over time. The faultline between them has erupted violently in Pakistan since the late 1970s. While there are some pioneering works available on their separate worldviews, no study has yet been attempted to critically analyse the nature of their interaction at the political level.
Pakistan in Doldrums
Pakistan today presents the picture of a nation at war with itself. It is not very often that one sees the armed forces of a state pounding its own citizens with helicopter gunships and heavy artillery. The inferno that had been ablaze in South Waziristan and North Waziristan for some time has now engulfed all the seven agencies of the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) and the flames from FATA have set almost the entire North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on fire.