Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

[gezzer]

PressTV - Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

**With thousands of Shia Muslims killed over the past few years in Pakistan and over 400 murdered in recent months, the killings have practically amounted to genocide, raising more-than-sectarian alarm bells not only in Pakistan but also across the Muslim world. **
In fact, there has been a marked escalation in mass murders and target killings of the Shia minority in Pakistan, increasing global fear and consternation over the brutal bloodbath. According to World Minority Rights Report (2011), Pakistan ranks as the 6th worst country in terms of violence against and persecution of the Shia Muslims and minorities.

That the Shia mass murders have continued over the years with no legal and judiciary source or law enforcement agencies having sought to put an end to these brutalities indicates that these acts are but to be considered as part of a systematic and organized plot prodigiously funded and ingeniously engineered by internal and external forces with the express intention of making the pillars of Pakistani society fall to smithereens, shattering the very fabric of the Shia community and distorting the image of Pakistan and depicting it as a religiously intolerant nation.

The targets which were basically focused on any ordinary person with Shia belief has now come to include those Shia Muslims who belong to the educated and elite class of the Pakistani society.

At least four people have been shot down in Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan since Tuesday morning. A recent incident occurred at Kashmir Road near Jail Chowrangi where Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Ali Mohsin, 42, was shot three times in the head by assassins. Two more people were also shot dead in Pirabad area of the city. In another assassination, Shia Doctor Syed Naimatullah s/o Syed Sarwar was killed in Quetta in broad daylight at his clinic at Kirni Road.

Doctor Syed Naimatullah is the 419th victim of targeted killings since January 2012.

In another instance of elite killings, unidentified gunmen shot dead a Shia Muslim judge Zulfiqar Naqvi along with his driver and police bodyguard on August 30 in Quetta, southwestern Pakistan.

Apart from the target killings, other cases of Shia killings have been committed in the most grisly forms. A gruesome video recently circulated online by the Wahhabi Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) shows the beheading of two Shia Muslims.

An offshoot of al-Qaeda, the terrorist group first posted the video titled “Revenge” on August 23 on the Wahhabi terrorist Seminary Jamia Hafsa Urdu forum and then distributed it on other Wahhabi-Nasabi jihadist forums.

Four masked men accompany the victims Haseeb Zaidi and Maulana Nooruddin with their hands tied behind their backs and decapitate them in cold blood. The extensively networked terrorist group is widely believed to be behind the Shia killings in the country.

The gruesome nature of the murders helps disclose the identity of the perpetrators. The act of beheading victims is typically characteristic of Taliban extremists who also carry out similar atrocities against Shia Muslims in Afghanistan.

**The history of violence against the Shia community in Pakistan goes back to the time of military dictator Zia ul-Haq who made it a state policy to fund and arm Wahhabi groups in the 1980s. It was during those years when he technically institutionalized violence by unleashing Sipah-e Sahaba fundamentalists on Shia-populated regions, ushering in a new age of violence and mayhem.

**In 1988, Zia ul-Haq dispatched a huge army of 80,000 extremists to Shia-populated Gilgit region to annihilate the Shias. Adjacent villages such as Jalalabad, Bonji, Darot, Jaglot, Pari, and Manawar were razed to the ground and over 700 Shia Muslims were massacred. According to a Herald report “In May 1988, low-intensity political rivalry and sectarian tension ignited into full-scale carnage as thousands of armed tribesmen from outside Gilgit district invaded Gilgit along the Karakoram Highway. Nobody stopped them. They destroyed crops and houses, lynched and burnt people to death in the villages around Gilgit town. The number of dead and injured was put in the hundreds. But numbers alone tell nothing of the savagery of the invading hordes and the chilling impact it has left on these peaceful valleys.”

**Simultaneously, Zia ul-Haq tasked Pakistan intelligence agency ISI with monitoring the activities of Shia organizations all over the country lest the Shia Muslims would be empowered in the wake of the advent of the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

**In order to avoid international blame for stoking sectarian violence in the country, Zia al-Haq decided to legitimize the anti-Shia activities of Wahhabi fundamentalists such as Sipah-e Sahaba to carry out this task for the government. Privy to the carnage of the Shia Muslims at the hands of the Wahhabi fundamentalists, the ISI refrained from stopping the genocide of the Shias. Worst of all, they even facilitated and financed the massacre on the secret orders of Zia ul-Haq.

What is now happening to the Shia Muslims in Pakistani regions such as Gilgit, Baltistan, Parachinar, Kurram agency, Quetta and other areas is indeed the continued legacy of violence initiated by Zia ul-Haq and financed by Saudi Wahhabis in an effort to limit the influence of the Shia Muslims in the country.

IS/JR

[Zero_one]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

^ ur own views on that ..... i guess Mods gonna delete/close this thread if u don't add ur comments to this

Don't worry everything will be alright once everything is according to "Islam"

May Allah SWT have mercy on those who passed away in this. Ameen

May Allah SWT punish all those resposible for this. Ameen

[yazdi]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

Unfortunately we are one of the last societies left where still people get killed due to theological differences and faith matters. Primitive mind set..!!!

[Ali_Syed]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

In the 1980's and 90's it was basically two way traffic, both Shias and Sunnis were involved but for the past few years its one way only, I agree with the OP that the current killing amounts to a genocide. At the moment it's against Shias, if its not stopped, at a later stage it will be against barelvis as well.

[Shamraz_Khan]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/world/asia/pakistans-hazara-shiites-under-siege.html?pagewanted=all

QUETTA, Pakistan — Calligraphers linger at the gates of an ancient graveyard in this brooding city in western Pakistan, charged with a macabre and increasingly in-demand task: inscribing the tombstones of the latest victims of the sectarian death squads that openly roam these streets.

For at least a year now, Sunni extremist gunmen have been methodically attacking members of the Hazara community, a Persian-speaking Shiite minority that emigrated here from Afghanistan more than a century ago. The killers strike with chilling abandon, apparently fearless of the law: shop owners are gunned down at their counters, students as they play cricket, pilgrims dragged from buses and executed on the roadside.

The latest victim, a mechanic named Hussain Ali, was killed Wednesday, shot inside his workshop. He joined the list of more than 100 Hazaras who have been killed this year, many in broad daylight. As often as not, the gunmen do not even bother to cover their faces.

The bloodshed is part of a wider surge in sectarian violence across Pakistan in which at least 375 Shiites have died this year — the worst toll since the 1990s, human rights workers say. But as their graveyard fills, Hazaras say the mystery lies not in the identity of their attackers, who are well known, but in a simpler question: why the Pakistani state cannot — or will not — protect them.

“After every killing, there are no arrests,” said Muzaffar Ali Changezi, a retired Hazara engineer. “So if the government is not supporting these killers, it must be at least protecting them. That’s the only way to explain how they operate so openly.”

The government, already battling Taliban insurgents, insists it is taking the threat seriously. During the recent Mourning of Muhurram, when Shiites parade through the streets over 10 days, the Interior Ministry imposed stringent security measures such as blocking cellphone signals for up to 12 hours — to try to prevent remote bomb detonations — and banning doubled-up motorcycle riding. Even so, Sunni bombers struck at least five times, killing at least 50 Shiites and wounding several hundred. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the biggest attacks, highlighting an emerging link between that group and traditional sectarian militants that has worried many.

Yet the unchecked killings have also raised wider questions about Pakistani society: about the spread of a cancerous sectarian ideology in a public that even just a decade ago seemed more tolerant, and about what might be spurring the growing audacity of the killers, some of whom are believed to have links to the country’s security services.

The murders in Quetta, for instance, involve remarkably little mystery. By wide consensus, the gunmen are based in Mastung, a dusty agricultural village 18 miles to the south that is the bustling local hub of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the country’s most notorious sectarian militant group.

Like so many Pakistani groups that combine guns with zealotry, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi thrives in a wink-and-nod netherworld: it is officially banned, but its leader, Malik Ishaq, was released from jail last year amid showers of rose petals thrown by supporters. Now Mr. Malik lives openly in southern Punjab Province, protected by armed men who loiter outside his door, allowing him to deliver hate-laced statements to visitors. Shiites are “the greatest infidels on earth,” he told a Reuters reporter last month.

In Quetta, his followers are similarly unfettered. In targeting the Hazara — who, with their distinctive Central Asian features, are easy to pick out — Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants block busy highways as they search vehicles for Hazaras and daub walls with hate slogans. “The face is the target,” said Major Nadir Ali, a senior Hazara leader and retired army officer. “They see the face, then they shoot.”

In the worst killing this year, militants dragged 26 Hazara men from a bus headed for a religious pilgrimage site in Iran, and executed them in front of their wives. The episode occurred near Mastung.

There is a growing sense of siege in the Hazara community here. Shards of glass are still lodged in the head of Waqar Husain, an engineering student who survived a bomb attack on a crowded university bus last June. Four students died in the attack, and four lost their sight. “It changed my view of life in Quetta,” he said.

Now largely confined to home, Mr. Hussain is still not safe. Threats come via Facebook and Twitter, he said, through taunting messages about the “Shia kaffir” — infidels.

The campaign of fear has forced the Hazara to retreat into ethnic enclaves on the edge of the city. Businesses have moved from the city center to Alamgir Road, a Hazara quarter where discreetly armed men stand watch on street corners. Even the ambulance drivers are armed.

One driver cocked his pistol before leading the way to the site of a recent attack. Across the street, the flag of a banned Sunni group fluttered from a shop with graffiti that read: “There is one treatment for Shiites — it is called jihad.”

The rattle of attacks is just one of several conflicts plaguing Quetta, a once quiet provincial capital now riven by a range of ethnic fissures and violent intrigues, lending it an air of power-keg tension.

Most famously, the city is, or was, home to the “Quetta Shura,” the secretive Afghan Taliban leadership council. But for the Pakistan Army, the main enemy are ethnic Baluch separatists, who killed three soldiers in a bomb attack in central Quetta on Nov. 21.

Foreigners are no longer safe, either treated as Western spies by suspicious officials or abducted as part of a soaring trade in kidnapping. Last April the decapitated body of Khalil Dale, a British Red Cross doctor, was found near Quetta, three months after suspected militants abducted him for ransom.

With such a dizzy array of threats, it is perhaps unsurprising that the security forces have failed to stem sectarian violence. But many analysts see a more disturbing cause: a fatal ambivalence inside the police and military toward jihadi groups.

While the military ostensibly severed its relationship with Islamist groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi after 2001, some activists suspect that, at a local level, ties linger. “The authorities are turning a blind eye,” said Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch. “The most charitable explanation is that they are incompetent. The alternative is that the military enjoys an informal alliance with Sunni extremists.”

A senior official with the Frontier Corps, the paramilitary force in charge of securing Quetta, denied accusations of collusion. The situation is “challenging,” he admitted, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “But there is no problem with the Hazara. We pursue all criminals, irrespective of sect, caste or religion.”

Regional politics also plays a role. Iran and Saudi Arabia financed rival Shiite and Sunni militant groups in the 1990s, as part of a proxy war for influence. Experts say that, while the Iranian financing has slowed dramatically, private Saudi funds continue to pour in.

In a State Department cable dated December 2009 and published by WikiLeaks, Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton noted that “donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.”

The sense of siege has turned to flight for many younger Hazaras, who are leaving their homes in Quetta for Australia, 6,000 miles distant and the largest center of the Hazara diaspora. It is an expensive, dangerous journey: after paying up to $15,000 per head to people smugglers, many are forced to brave perilous journeys in rickety boats across the Indian Ocean. Too often, the boats sink en route, taking hundreds of lives.

Muhammad Hussain, a 39-year-old teacher, said two of his brothers had left for Australia in the past four years — one had almost certainly drowned, he believed; the other, who left four months ago, had still not sent news.

“We just don’t know what happened,” he said, twisting his fingers anxiously as he spoke.

[bao_bihari]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

@Ali_Syed

In the 1980’s and 90’s it was basically two way traffic, both Shias and Sunnis were involved but for the past few years its one way only, I agree with the OP that the current killing amounts to a genocide. At the moment it’s against Shias, if its not stopped, at a later stage it will be against barelvis as well.

No.

More then 40 ulema and hundreds other sunnis were killed during the last 6 months. Take example of ahsan ul uloom , In last one month or so 2 ulema and 8 students were martyred belonging to that madressa.

it is just media portrays as one side affair, when shia is killed it is shias who are killed regardless of whether he was muhajir quomi movements sector inchare, mutahida target killer or ppp worker, and when sunnis are killed it is not sunni who is killed but a labour/worker/unidentified man/sector incharge wahaira. This is how it is represented in the media.

Killing any one is not acceptable, despite the aqaidh one has, it is not ones duty to take law in his hand but should present a balanced picture.I can see that media is creating a hype to incite full fledged secreterian war.

Why no one mentions terrorist organizations like lashkar e mehdi,spiah e muhammad, Imamia student organization/mukhtar force when discussing these killings?

I still believe that sunnis are at receving end, they are getting killed by these terrorists and then false media hype still make some heros.

**Episode 2.
**

404 - Ummat Publication

---

Restored attachments:

[Ali_Syed]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

^ Karachi has different dynamics, if you take it out there's a different trend through out the country.

[yazdi]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

^^^
I don't think counting the sectarian affiliation of deceased is a good idea. A lot of sunnis are killed by other rival sunni sects who don't consider other sunni sects as muslims.

"Once I saw a guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Muslim or a non-Muslim?" He said, "A Muslim." I said, "Me, too! Shia or Sunni?" He said, "Sunni." I said, "Me, too! What madhab?" He said, "Hanafi." I said, "Me, too! Deobandi or Barelvi?" He said, "Barelvi." I said, "Me, too! Tanzeehi or Tafkeeri?" He said, "Tanzeehi." I said, "Me, too! Tanzeehi Azmati or Tanzeehi Farhati?" He said, "Tanzeehi Farhati." I said, "Me, too!" “Tanzeehi Farhati Jamia ul Uloom Ajmer, or “Tanzeehi Farhati Jamia ul Noor Mewat?" He said, " Tanzeehi Farhati Jamia ul Noor Mewat." I said, "Die, kaafir!" and I pushed him over' -"

[Raj_ind]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

@yazdi

^^^ I don't think counting the sectarian affiliation of deceased is a good idea. A lot of sunnis are killed by other rival sunni sects who don't consider other sunni sects as muslims.

"Once I saw a guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Muslim or a non-Muslim?" He said, "A Muslim." I said, "Me, too! Shia or Sunni?" He said, "Sunni." I said, "Me, too! What madhab?" He said, "Hanafi." I said, "Me, too! Deobandi or Barelvi?" He said, "Barelvi." I said, "Me, too! Tanzeehi or Tafkeeri?" He said, "Tanzeehi." I said, "Me, too! Tanzeehi Azmati or Tanzeehi Farhati?" He said, "Tanzeehi Farhati." I said, "Me, too!" “Tanzeehi Farhati Jamia ul Uloom Ajmer, or “Tanzeehi Farhati Jamia ul Noor Mewat?" He said, " Tanzeehi Farhati Jamia ul Noor Mewat." I said, "Die, kaafir!" and I pushed him over' -"

Sad Joke, a heart-breaking one? :(

[Ali_Syed]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

^ i agree but at the moment the focus is on shias, but thats another thing that every sect considers itself as true embodiment of the religion and the rest as kafirs, mushriks or murtids.

[Sohaib]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

There is discrimination for other sects in countries like SA, Bahrain, Qatar etc. But the killings? No. Never happened!

Just a further proof that we need to work on our society more rather than infrastructures :)

[ajazali]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

^ Karachi has different dynamics, if you take it out there's a different trend through out the country.

what is the trend in other parts of country? what are major shia killings by sunni?

[Ali_Syed]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

^ who was killed in the six bomb blasts during Muharram? Who is being killed in gilgit, kurrum and Quetta? It's not that Shias are not being killed in Karachi.

[ajazali]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

^ who was killed in the six bomb blasts during Muharram? Who is being killed in gilgit, kurrum and Quetta?

In Gilgit, its exactly two way.
again, you are refering Taliban

[Raj_ind]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

There is discrimination for other sects in countries like SA, Bahrain, Qatar etc. But the killings? No. Never happened!

Just a further proof that we need to work on our society more rather than infrastructures :)

Agreed, but killing never happens because each sect is not as vocal and active in following their brand of Islam as the dominant one.

If anything which need to be done in either society with high dose of religion is to lower their dose and keep the religion a limited affair between an individual and ALLAH/GOD/BHAGVAN.

We in India are facing the onset of same problem which originates from hyper-religious societies. Religion which came into existence for making the man more human is working otherwise. Sad Sad.:(

[Ali_Syed]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

Insight: Gilgit’s sectarian conundrum by Aziz Ali Dad

[ajazali]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

@Ali_Syed

Insight: Gilgit’s sectarian conundrum by Aziz Ali Dad

An Ismaili from Gilgit is my office coleague and he just acknowledges that the killing is two way, if we dont go into past.

[Shamraz_Khan]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

Killing any one is not acceptable, despite the aqaidh one has, it is not ones duty to take law in his hand but should present a balanced picture.I can see that media is creating a hype to incite full fledged secreterian war.

Why no one mentions terrorist organizations like lashkar e mehdi,spiah e muhammad, Imamia student organization/mukhtar force when discussing these killings?

I still believe that sunnis are at receving end, they are getting killed by these terrorists and then false media hype still make some heros.

Ummat publication? Taliban spokesman is more credible. Oh, and I'm ok with religious people killing other religious people. However, I have problem when religious people kill innocent people like Hazaras in Quetta b/c they look different & that is mostly done by LEJ which is offshoot of SPP.

[yazdi]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

Killing any one is not acceptable, despite the aqaidh one has, it is not ones duty to take law in his hand but should present a balanced picture.I can see that media is creating a hype to incite full fledged secreterian war.

Why no one mentions terrorist organizations like lashkar e mehdi,spiah e muhammad, Imamia student organization/mukhtar force when discussing these killings?

I still believe that sunnis are at receving end, they are getting killed by these terrorists and then false media hype still make some heros.

]

No shia is getting killed. Media is just creating a hype.. Taliban/sipah sahaba are all peaceful angels who are facing this media publicity which maligns them to make them unpopular. These organizations are just performing what has been ordered to them by Allah. In fact shias are the real terrorist operating through terrorist organization killing innocent sunnis ( Allah's chosen real muslims).. Media is following shia-yahoodi agenda..

Khush...

[bao_bihari]

Re: Carnage of Shia Muslims in Pakistan

No shia is getting killed. Media is just creating a hype.. Taliban/sipah sahaba are all peaceful angels who are facing this media publicity which maligns them to make them unpopular. These organizations are just performing what has been ordered to them by Allah. In fact shias are the real terrorist operating through terrorist organization killing innocent sunnis ( Allah's chosen real muslims).. Media is following shia-yahoodi agenda..

Khush...

Nahi.

It is humans that are killed by both sides, just making one side look innocent rather then presenting a balanced approach is where we differ.

And with most of power in gilgit with shias why is that only shia killings are highlighted? in giligit jhang and other areas sunnis are also killed, why also not worry about these terrorist organisations like sipah e muhammad? does trying to get sipah e muhammad type organizations is equivalent of supporting Lej.

Innalilah