Pakistan’s ongoing campaign against the Taliban isn’t going as well as its media would have you think. Meanwhile, Sunni extremism is laying down roots in the country’s religiously diverse Southern province.

Pakistan awards a disputed parliamentary seat to the leader of a banned anti-Shi‘a organization. This is bad sign for the country’s persecuted Shi’a minority.

Sectarian tensions in Pakistan have gone from bad to worse ever since riots broke out in Rawalpindi a month ago. On Sunday, a Shia cleric was murdered in Lahore. The killing itself was seen as a response to the assassination of a Sunni leader of religious party known for its anti-Shia rhetoric. And on Wednesday, 3 people were killed as a suicide bomber tried to break into a Shia mosque in Rawalpindi. Is Pakistan going the route of Iran and Syria?