Bohra communities in several cities vie each year to play host to the sect’s leader, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, or Syedna to most of his followers. “It’s like the Olympics,” said Ikbal, a congregant at the expanding mosque. He began choking up as he recalled the moment Karachi was announced as this year’s location. “Everybody was in tears,” he said. “We were so happy, I can’t explain it.”

Though Karachi is home to one of the biggest concentrations of Dawoodi Bohras outside India, the sect’s leader has not visited for Muharram for 21 years. Those years have been bloody ones for Pakistani Shiites, with thousands killed in sectarian attacks that almost always go unsolved and unprosecuted.

Bohras in Karachi have seen a share of violence. In September 2012, two blasts in a predominantly Bohra market killed seven people. Three years later, a bomb detonated outside a Bohra mosque moments after an evening prayer service. Two worshipers were killed, sending shock waves through the tiny sect.

“When the blast happened, this entire half of the mosque went dark,” said Muhammad Hussain, pointing to where the bomb detonated. “We saw the bodies afterward. One of them, his body was split into two.”