Once again the Shi’a, especially Hazara, of Afghanistan are fair game as a new battle for supremacy of the most sharia-compliant brutes and murderers starts in that country. Recent bomb attacks, claimed by ISIS, that targeted the minority Shi’a Hazara community as they attended Friday prayers are the oldest tactic in the game when it comes to creating chaos in the neighbouring country. There was an attack on Sunni worshippers as well, though that one hasn’t yet been claimed, but the script is only too familiar for anybody to misinterpret what is really going on. The Taliban claim to have put a lid on this controversy for now, having executed a number of alleged ISIS agents after quick summary trials; but this, too, has happened before. ISIS went active shortly after the Talban waltzed back into Kabul, to keep them from setting in comfortably of course, but quick remedial action from the new government gave the impression, falsely it turned out, that all was finally well. It’s clear that the model that has no central command, only distant and scattered adherents that are wired money as and when needed, is working out finely for ISIS recruits. But it’s not as if they’re going to be satisfied with what they achieve in Afghanistan alone. This fight has already made its way to Pakistan as well. The attack on Shi’a worshippers in Peshawar recently, that took upwards of 60 innocent lives, was also carried out by forces divided between ISIS and TTP. And everybody already knows only too well, on both sides of the Durand Line, how quickly even a small spark can light a big fire in these parts. And what ISIS is doing is the farthest thing from a small spark; it’s a proper bonfire in its own right. The moment calls for Islamabad and Kabul to join forces and share intelligence to send ISIS to an early grave in this region. Short of that, they have the capability to keep making small holes in the compact that holds the region together and ultimately it will require a much bigger military effort to reclaim it. Time is definitely of the essence, at least for the poor, suffering Hazara. *