"My teacher had told me if I kill Shias I will go to heaven," says Mohammad Azam. "Barelvis and Shias are the same. They both need to be killed," adds Jalandar Khan. The two men were jugged before they could launch suicide kabooms.
Sectarian differences in Pakistain took a violent turn after the Soviet fall, when men who had been fighting in Afghanistan used their resources and training to carry out attacks on Shias and other minorities in Pakistain.
Riaz Basra and his accomplices were accused of targeting key Shia state officials and professionals until 1996. In 1997, the killings became indiscriminate and all Shias became targets.
After the strict Salafist Taliban government took over in Afghanistan, violence against Shias and minorities increased significantly. At least 193 people were killed in sectarian violence in Pakistain in 1997, 157 in 1998, and more than 261 in 2001. This happened while many in Pakistain had been praising the Taliban for the peace they had brought in Afghanistan.
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The first suicide attack of sectarian nature was carried out in 2003, on a Shia mosque on Pakistain-Afghanistan border. At least 55 people were killed.
In mid-2002, Al Qaeda began to cooperate with local sectarian organizations in Bloody Karachi, strengthening their networks and capacity. Among the first attacks carried out by this alliance was an ambush on Bloody Karachi corps commander Gen Ahsan Hayat.
Since then, attacks have been carried out on almost all major Sufi shrines, and Barelvi and Shia people have been under constant attack. In 2006, a large number of Barelvi Sunni Tehrik
...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities...
leaders were killed in a suicide kaboom at a religious gathering in Nishtar Park.
Sectarian violence in Bloody Karachi:
| In mid-2002, Al Qaeda began to cooperate with local sectarian organizations in Bloody Karachi, strengthening their networks and capacity |
"More than 200 of our workers have been killed in recent attacks," says Sarwat Ejaz Qadri, the chief of Sunni Tehrik.
Sunni Tehrik was formed in 1992 to safeguard the interests of Barelvi Mohammedans. It opposed the appointment of rival Deobandis on key state posts. Important Deobandi ideologues it had opposed were from the Binori Town mosque in Bloody Karachi. The founder of the mosque was killed in May 2004 and his son, nephew and driver were maimed, when his car was ambushed by gunnies.
The liquidation occurred three weeks after a powerful bomb killed 15 Shia worshippers in Hyderi Mosque.
A day after the liquidation, at least 24 worshippers were killed and 34 others injured when a high-intensity bomb went
kaboom!during the evening prayers at a Shia mosque on MA Jinnah Road in Bloody Karachi.
A top intelligence official said they were seen by security agencies as tit-for-tat attacks.
When Intelligence Bureau and CID conducted a raid to arrest a suspect believed to be involved in the Nishtar Park bombing on a house in Baldia locality in Bloody Karachi, the inmates retaliated. The three people eventually locked away - Sultan Omer, Siddique Mehsud and Zubair Bengali - admitted to have been involved in suicide attacks at Nishtar Park and on Allama Hassan Turabi. One of them was a relative of Baitullah Mehsud.
The Al Qaeda link:
In March 1995, two American consulate officials - Garry C Durrell (CIA) and Jackie Van Landingham (a consulate secretary) were targeted by a local group in an attack sanctioned by Al Qaeda in response to the extradition of Ramzi Yousaf.
According to an intelligence source who has been following sectarian outfits for over two decades, it was among the first verifiable indications of sectarian bully boyz tagging with Al Qaeda.
"It was Khaled Sheikh Muhammad, the Al Qaeda number three and an anti-Shia Baloch of Iranian origin who supervised the attack."
In 2002 when Khaled Sheikh Muhammad came to Bloody Karachi, he was housed by local sectarian groups, says a former intelligence chief who asked not to be named. Some of these groups became the operational arms for Al Qaeda in Pakistain's urban areas.
Suspects locked away by security agencies and intelligence reports also show these groups have connections with Al Qaeda.
Sectarian faultlines:
In South Punjab
, Khanewal, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Leiah, Shujabad, and DG Khan have recently become major centers of sectarian outfits. According to a survey, there are more than 798 madarssas in DG Khan and more than 1000 in Bahawalpur. A large number of them are fuelling sectarian discords.In Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
, scores of Hazara people have been killed for their Shia beliefs. The government has failed to respond to the threat so far and key holy mans have not condemned the brutal acts.
In Bloody Karachi and Punjab, banned sectarian groups are now operating under new names and leaders once seen as involved in sectarian violence are addressing political gatherings.
These developments indicate the sectarian fault lines emerging in urban Pakistain.