On Thursday morning, eight people, including six teachers were killed in two separate shootings in Parachinar, the only Shia-majority town in KP. Parachinar has been the site of sectarian attacks numerous times before, in 2013 when a bomb tore through a crowded bazaar in the northwestern town, killing 60 people and in 2017 when a set of twin bombings claimed 70 lives. While no groups have claimed responsibility for the attack so far, it is not lost on us that the attack comes amid a resurgence of the militant violence that stoked a wave of sectarian-tribal conflict in the area over a decade ago. The scale of organised sectarian violence in Parachinar goes back to the 80s when General Zia allowed the Sunni Afghan mujahideen to mow down the Turi shias of upper Parachinar who objected to the government using their land as a launching pad against the Soviet-backed government in Kabul. This particular paradigm of sectarian violence, marked by the use of heavy weapons by both sides, has been replicated many times after and almost always ends with the military coming in to restore order. Things took a sharp turn after 9/11 when it was revealed that many sectarian groups were part-time jihadists. Their symbiotic relationship with mainstream religiopolitical organisations such as JUI exposes an ever scarier picture, suggesting that sectarian subjectivities run unchecked through large sections of society. What happened in Parachinar isn’t an isolated incident and contextualising it as one would be a huge mistake-sectarianism has blazed through the region ruthlessly before and will very likely do so again if we let this slide. That being said, it would be unfair to assume that there aren’t good, well-meaning people on both sides. It is not lost on us that a group of Shia locals went out of their way to protect Sunni teachers in the aftermath of the shooting to prevent retaliatory violence. But people cannot be tasked with ensuring their safety forever. Ultimately, it is the state’s responsibility to protect its people against violence and foster a spirit of togetherness that trumps all the hatred and vitriol that sectarianism sends our way. *