The sectarian violence in Pakistan appears to be part of a co-ordinated campaign.

The worst single incident took place in Karachi on Friday morning, when nine Shi'ite Muslims were killed in a mosque as they said their morning prayers.

Shi'ites have also died in attacks in the cities of Multan, Peshawar and Lahore.

The Shi'ite community is blaming the SSP

Sunni Muslims have been killed in Karachi, apparently as a reprisal for the attack on the mosque.

All of the killings appear to have been targeted and all were carried out by gunmen with automatic weapons who fled the scene on motorcycles.

That is consistent with past patterns of sectarian violence in Pakistan. What is new is that so many have been killed at around the same time in different parts of the country.

The Shi'ite community is blaming a hard-line Sunni group, Sipah-i-Sahaba, or SSP, for carrying out the attacks. The SSP has denied any involvement.

Temporary respite

The authorities, though, have placed restrictions on the movements of the SSP's leader, Azam Tariq, who is now effectively under house-arrest.

The government of Nawaz Sharif has consistently pledged itself to combat sectarian violence in Pakistan and following a security clampdown earlier this year the number of sectarian killings did decline.