Sectarian violence in Pakistan refers to attacks and counter-attacks against people and places in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

motivated by antagonism toward the target's sect, usually a religious extremist group. Targets in Pakistan include the

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mos ...

Barelvi The Barelvi movement ( ur, بَریلوِی, , ), also known as Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l-Jamaah (People of the Prophet's Way and the Community) is a Sunni revivalist movement following the Hanafi and Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, with strong Suf ...

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a dis ...

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...

Ahmadis Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and small groups of

Deobandi Deobandi is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam, adhering to the Hanafi school of law, formed in the late 19th century around the Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the name derives, by Muhammad Qasim Nanautav ...

s. As many as 4,000 people are estimated to have been killed by Shia-Sunni sectarian attacks in Pakistan between 1987–2007. And since 2008, thousands of Shia have been killed by Sunni extremists according to

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...

(HRW). One significant aspect of the attacks in Pakistan is that militants often target Sunni and Shia

places of worship A place of worship is a specially designed structure or space where individuals or a group of people such as a congregation come to perform acts of devotion, veneration, or religious study. A building constructed or used for this purpose is somet ...

during prayers in order to maximize fatalities and to "emphasize the religious dimensions of their attack". Human Rights Watch also states that in 2011 and 2012, Pakistan minority groups including Hindus, Ahmadi, and Christians "faced unprecedented insecurity and persecution in the country". Attacks on Sufi shrines by

Salafi The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three genera ...

s have also been reported. Among those blamed for the sectarian violence in the country are mainly Deobandi militant groups, such as the

Sipah-e-Sahaba Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP, , Guardians of the Prophet's Companions), renamed to Millat-e-Islamia, is a Islamist organisation in Pakistan, which also functioned as a political party. It broke away from the main Deobandi Sunni organisation ...

(SSP), the

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan The Pakistani Taliban (), formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (Urdu/ ps, , lit=Student Movement of Pakistan, TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Durand Line, Afghan–Pa ...

(TTP), and Jundallah (affiliates of

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic ter ...

). Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan "has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks" on Shia according to Human Rights Watch.

militant groups are also blamed for attacks on Shias, Barelvis and Sufis.

Religions and sects

;Shia and Sunni Estimates of the size of the two largest religious groups in Pakistan vary. According to the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and th ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...

, and other experts, adherents of

Shi'a Islam in Pakistan Shia Islam was brought to the Indian subcontinent during the final years of the Rashidun Caliphate. The Indian subcontinent also served as a refuge for some Shias escaping persecution from Umayyads, Abbasids, Ayyubids, and Ottomans. The immi ...

make up between 9-15% of the population of Pakistan while the remaining 70–75% are Sunni. Pakistan, like India, is said to have at least 16 million Shias. Globally, Shia Islam constitutes 10–20% of the total

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, while the remaining 80%–90% practice Sunni Islam. Of the Sunni, the majority follow the Barelvi school, while 15-25% follow the Deobandi school of jurisprudence. ;Ahmadi and Sunni An estimated 0.22%-2.2% of the population are Ahmadi, The 1998 Pakistani census states that there are 291,000 (0.22%) Ahmadis in Pakistan. However, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has boycotted the census since 1974 which renders official Pakistani figures to be inaccurate. Independent groups have estimated the Pakistani Ahmadiyya population to be somewhere between 2 million and 5 million Ahmadis. However, the 4 million figure is the most quoted figure and is approximately 2.2% of the country. See: * over 2 million: * 3 million: International Federation for Human Rights: ''International Fact-Finding Mission. Freedoms of Expression, of Association and of Assembly in Pakistan.'' Ausgabe 408/2, Januar 2005, S. 61
PDF
) * 3–4 million: Commission on International Religious Freedom: ''Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.'' 2005, S. 130 * 4.910.000: James Minahan: Encyclopedia of the stateless nations. Ethnic and national groups around the world. Greenwood Press . Westport 2002, page 52 * who were designated 'non-Muslims' by a 1974 constitutional amendment, although they consider themselves Muslims, due to pressure from Sunni extremist groups. ;Other groups

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

is the second largest religion in Pakistan after Islam, according to the 1998 Census. Non-Muslim religions also include

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

, which has 2,800,000 (1.6%) adherents as of 2005. The Bahá'í Faith claims 30,000, followed by

Sikhs Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism (Sikhi), a monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The ter ...

Buddhists Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

and

Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...

s, each claiming 20,000 adherents, and a very small community of

Jains Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

Intra-Muslim sectarianism

Barelvis

Barelvis form the majority within the Sunni sect, while the Deobandis form 15-25%. However, the Barelvis have been targeted and killed by Deobandi groups in Pakistan such as the TTP, SSP, and

Lashkar-e-Taiba Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT; ur, ; literally ''Army of the Good'', translated as ''Army of the Righteous'', or ''Army of the Pure'' and alternatively spelled as ''Lashkar-e-Tayyiba'', ''Lashkar-e-Toiba'', ''Lashkar-i-Taiba'', ''Lashkar-i-Tayyeba'') ...

. Suicide attacks, vandalism and destruction of sites considered holy to those in the Barelvi movement have been perpetrated by Deobandi extremist groups. This includes attacks, destruction and vandalism of

Data Darbar Data Darbar (also spelt Data Durbar; ), located in the city of Lahore (Punjab, Pakistan), is the largest Sufi shrine in South Asia. It was built to house the remains of Ali Hujwiri, commonly known as ''Data Ganj Baksh'', a Sufi saint from Ghazni ...

in Lahore, Abdullah Shah Ghazi's tomb in Karachi, Khal Magasi in Balochistan, and Rahman Baba's tomb in Peshawar. The murder of various Barelvi leaders have also been committed by Deobandi terrorists. Barelvi clerics claim that there is a bias against them in various Pakistani establishments such as the DHA, who tend to appoint Deobandi

Imams Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, serve ...

for mosques in their housing complexes rather that Barelvi ones. Historical landmarks such as

Badshahi Masjid The Badshahi Mosque (Urdu, Punjabi: ; literally ''The Royal Mosque'') is a Mughal-era congregational mosque in Lahore, capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab. The mosque is located west of Lahore Fort along the outskirts of the Walled C ...

also have Deobandi Imams, which is a fact that has been used as evidence by Barelvi clerics for bias against Barelvis in

. The ''Milade Mustafa Welfare Society'' has asserted that the Religious Affairs Department of DHA interferes with Human Resources to ensure that Deobandi Imams are selected for mosques in their housing complex. In April 2006, the entire leadership of two prominent Barelvi outfits, the

Sunni Tehreek Sunni Tehreek is a Pakistani Barlevi organization. The organization was founded by Muhammad Saleem Qadri in 1990 in order to prevent Barelevi mosques from being seized by Deobandi and Wahabi organizations. It also sees itself as a defender o ...

and

Jamaat Ahle Sunnat The Jamaat Ahle Sunnat ( ur, ) is a Muslim religious organization in Pakistan that represents the Barelvi movement. It was supported by Muhammad Shafee Okarvi. As a Sunni organisation it has adopted many Sufi customs and traditions. History In ...

were killed in a bomb attack in the

Nishtar Park bombing On 11 April 2006, a bombing at Nishtar Park in Karachi, Pakistan resulted in the deaths of at least 49 people and injured around a hundred others. At the time of the blast, a mawlid ceremony to mark the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed organised ...

, in Pakistan's largest city and business hub

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

. On 12 June 2009,

Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi Shaheed, ( ur, ), (16 February 1948 – 12 June 2009) was a Sunni Islamic cleric from Pakistan who was well known for his moderate and anti-terrorist views. Between 2005 and 2010, hundreds of Barelvi sect members have been killed in more than 70 suicide attacks at different religious shrines.

Shias

After the demise of Jinnah, the prime minister of Pakistan, Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, allied with the ulema and passed the

Objectives Resolution The Objectives Resolution ( ur, ) was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on March 12, 1949. Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, had presented it in the assembly on March 7, 1949. Out of 75 members of the assembly, 21 voted for opposi ...

and adopted the Islam as state religion. Jinnah's appointed law minister,

Jogendra Nath Mandal Jogendranath Mandal (Bengali: যোগেন্দ্রনাথ মন্ডল; 29 January 1904 – 5 October 1968), was one of the founding fathers of modern state of Pakistan, and legislator serving as country's first minister of law and ...

, resigned from his post. Shias of Pakistan allege discrimination by the Pakistani government since 1948, claiming that Sunnis are given preference in business, official positions and administration of justice. Although the sectarian hateful literature has been pouring into Punjab since Shah Abd al-Aziz wrote his ''Tuhfa Asna Ashariya'', however, major incidents of anti-Shia violence began only after mass migration in 1947. Many students of Molana Abdul Shakoor Farooqi and Molana Hussain Ahmad Madani migrated to Pakistan and either set up seminaries here or became part of the Tanzim-e-Ahle-Sunnat (TAS) or Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI). They travelled through the length and breadth of the country and called for attacks on Azadari and wrote books and tracts against it. Among them were: Molana Noorul Hasan Bukhari, Molana Dost Muhammad Qureshi, Molana Abdus Sattar Taunsavi, Molana Mufti Mahmood, Molana Abdul Haq Haqqani, Molana Sarfaraz Khan Safdar Gakharvi, and Molana Manzoor Ahmad Naumani. The sectarian clashes of Lucknow had attracted zealous workers of religious parties from Punjab and KPK, but with influx of sectarian clergy, the religious sectarianism and narrow-mindedness of UP was injected to Sufism-oriented Punjab and Sindh. In the 1950s, ''Tanzim-e-Ahle-Sunnat'' started to arrange public gatherings all over Pakistan to incite violence and mock Shia sanctities. TAS issued an anti-Shia monthly, called ''Da’wat''. In Muharram 1955, attacks took place on at least 25 places in Punjab. In 1956, thousands of armed villagers gathered to attack Azadari in the small town of Shahr Sultan, but were stopped by Police from killing. On 7 August 1957, three Shias were killed during an attack in Sitpur village. Blaming the victim, TAS demanded that government should ban the thousand years old tradition of Azadari, because it caused rioting and bloodshed. In May 1958, a Shia orator Agha Mohsin was target-killed in Bhakkar. Police needed to be appointed to many places, the scenario became more like in the pre-partition Urdu Speaking areas. It is important to note here that the Shia ulema were becoming part of religious alliances and not supporting secularism. The syllabus taught at Shia seminaries does not include any course on the history of the subcontinent. Shia clerics don't have an independent political vision: they were strengthening the puritanism which was going to deprive Shias of basic human rights, like equality, peace and freedom. Ayyub Khan enforced Martial Law in 1958. In the 1960s, Shias started to face state persecution when Azadari processions were banned at some places and the ban was lifted only after protests. In Lahore, the main procession of Mochi gate was forced to change its route. After Martial Law was lifted in 1962, anti-Shia hate propaganda started again, both in the form of books and weekly papers. The Deobandi organisation, ''Tanzim-e-Ahle-Sunnat'', demanded the Azadari to be limited to Shia ghetto's. Following Muharram, on 3 June 1963, two Shias were killed and over a hundred injured in an attack on Ashura procession in Lahore. In a small town of Tehri in the Khairpur District of Sindh, 120 Shias were slaughtered. The press did not cover the incidents properly, as the identity of both the perpetrators and the victims, and their objective was concealed. On 16 June, six Deobandi organisations arranged a public meeting in Lahore where they blamed the victims for the violence. In July, a commission was appointed to inquire into the riots. Its report was published in December that year, but it too did not name any individual or organisation. Nobody was punished. Mahmood Ahmad Abbasi, Abu Yazid Butt, Qamar-ud-Din Sialvi and others wrote books against Shias. In 1969, Ashura procession was attacked in Jhang. On 26 February 1972, Ashura procession was stone pelted on in Dera Ghazi Khan. In May 1973, the Shia neighbourhood of Gobindgarh in Sheikhupura district was attacked by Deobandi mob. There were troubles in Parachinar and Gilgit too. In 1974, Shia villages were attacked in Gilgit by armed Deobandi men. January 1975 saw several attacks on Shia processions in Karachi, Lahore, Chakwal and Gilgit. In a village Babu Sabu near Lahore, three Shias were killed and many were left injured. On the other hand, Mufti Mahmood, Molana Samiul Haq, Ihsan Illahi Zaheer and others wrote and spoke furiously against Shias. Molana Samilul Haq wrote in the editorial of ''Al-Haq'' magazine'':''

"''We must also remember that Shias consider it their religious duty to harm and eliminate the Ahle-Sunna .... the Shias have always conspired to convert Pakistan to a Shia state ... They have been conspiring with our foreign enemies and with the Jews. It was through such conspiracies that the Shias masterminded the separation of East Pakistan and thus satiated their thirst for the blood of the Sunnis''".Khaled Ahmad, "Sectarian War", p. 136, Oxford University Press, (2015).

The liberation struggle of Bangladesh was instigated by economic and cultural grievances, not religion. The religious reality is that the Shia population of Bangladesh was less than 1%, and similarly the Mukti Bahni was pre-dominantly Sunni. The members of

Al-Badr Al Badr is a village in Mecca Province, in western Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it ...

and Al-Shams, the jihadi militias set up by Pakistan armed forces to crush the Bengali fighters, were recruited from

Jamaat-i-Islami Jamaat-e-Islami ( ur, ) () is an Islamic movement founded in 1941 in British India by the Islamic theologian and socio-political philosopher, Syed Abul Ala Maududi.van der Veer P. and Munshi S. (eds.''Media, War, and Terrorism: Responses fr ...

and followed ''wahhabist'' form of Islam preached by followers of Syed Ahmad Barelvi and Shah Ismael Dihlavi. Shias of Pakistan form a small minority in civil and military services and they too try to downplay their religious identity for fears of discrimination. After Zia's takeover in 1977, the influence of socialism and modernism started to wane and religious parties felt empowered by Zia's islamization program. They began to recruit workers and volunteers. In February 1978, Ali Basti, a Shia neighborhood in Karachi, was attacked by a Deobandi mob and 5 men were killed. Next Muharram, in 1978, Azadari processions were attacked in Lahore and Karachi leaving 22 Shias dead. After Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the country became a safe haven for Shia phobic militants. They could now train in the name of Afghan Jihad, kill Shias and go to Afghanistan in hiding. The number of hate crimes against the Shias increased. During Muharram 1980, the Afghan Refugees settled near Parachinar attacked Shia villages and in 1981, they expelled Shias from Sada. At that time, Kurram Militia was employed in Kurram Agency and they successfully contained this violence. In 1983, Shias neighbourhoods of Karachi were attacked on Eid Milad-un-Nabi. 94 houses were set on fire, 10 Shias were killed. On Muharram 1983, there were again attacks on Shias in Karachi. On 6 July 1985, police opened fire on a Shia demonstration in Quetta, killing 17 Shias. Shias responded and 11 attackers were killed. According to police report, among the 11 attackers who died in the clash only 2 were identified as police sepoys and 9 were civilian Deobandis wearing fake police uniforms. In Muharram 1986, 7 Shias were killed in Punjab, 4 in Lahore, 3 in Layyah. In July 1987, Shias of Parachinar, who were ready to defend, were attacked by the Afghan Mujahideen again and as a result, 52 Shias and 120 attackers lost their lives. In 1988, Shia procession was banned in Dera Ismail Khan and 9 unarmed Shia civilians were shot dead while defying the ban. The government had to restore the procession. In the 1988 Gilgit Massacre,

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, his group is designated ...

-led

tribals assaulted, massacred and raped Shia civilians in

Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina: ; ur, ) is the capital city of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. The city is located in a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit River and the Hunza River. It is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a ...

after being inducted by the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the Partition of British India, which occurred as a result ...

to quell a Shia uprising in Gilgit. It is important to note here that it was not Zia, but Liaquat Ali Khan who had patronised the perpetrators of Lucknow sectarianism and started the process of Islamization. Ayyub Khan not only alienated Bengalis but also promoted a historical narrative of Ghulam Ahmad Pervaiz, a conspiracy theorist who attacked Shias in his books like ''Shahkaar-e-Risalat''. Long before Zia, the two-nation theory of Jinnah had been attributed to Ahmad Sirhindi and Shah Waliullah. These hate preachers were presented as heroes and real founders of Pakistan in Syllabus. Other significant event was the Islamic revolution of Iran. It indirectly strengthened the Islamists in Pakistan. Molana Maududi's ''Jamaat-e-Islami'' shared common ideas of political Islamism. They were the first to support it and publish Khomeini's writings and speeches in Pakistan. Shias did not support this revolution until 1985, when Molana Arif al-Hussaini assumed leadership of the Shia organisation ''Tehreek-e-Jafariya''. Molana Manzoor Ahmad Naumani had been writing against Jamaat-e-Islami for long time. Fearing that this revolution might actually empower Jamaat-i-Islami and the Shias, he obtained funding from Rabta Aalam-i-Islami of Saudi Arabia and wrote a book against Shias and Khomeini. Meanwhile, Molana Nurul Hasan Bukhari and Attaullah Shah Bukhari had died and ''Taznim-e-Ahle-Sunnat'' (TAS) was in a bad shape. The need for its re-organization was met by another Deobandi cleric of lower rank, Molana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi from Punjab. With same ideology and support base, he chose the name ''Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba'' (ASS) and later changed it to ''Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan'' (SSP). Just as the Soviet forces were leaving Afghanistan, a wave of civil disobedience and protests erupted in Kashmir. Pakistan decided to send in the Jihadis trained for Afghan Jihad. The followers of

Syed Ahmad Barelvi Syed Ahmad Barelvi or Sayyid Ahmad Shaheed (1786–1831) was an Indian Islamic revivalist, scholar and military commander from Raebareli, a part of the historical United Provinces of Agra and Oudh (now called Uttar Pradesh). He is consider ...

's puritanical form of Islam were trained at

Balakot Balakot (; ur, ; ) is a town in Mansehra District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The town was destroyed during the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, but was later rebuilt with the assistance of the Government of Pakistan and Saudi P ...

, the place where he was killed while fleeing the joint Sikh-Pashtun attack in 1831. New organisations, like Hizbul Mujahideen, were set up, but their members were drawn from the ideological spheres of Deobandi seminaries and Jamaat-e-islami. This made matters worse for Shias in Pakistan, as the jihadis trained for Kashmir used to come home and act as part-time sectarian terrorists. The state initially turned a blind eye. Sipah-e-Sahaba became more lethal, and the incidents of Shia killing became more organised and more targeted. Shia intellecticide began in the 1990s: doctors, engineers, professors, businessmen, clerics, lawyers, civil servants and other men of learning were being listed and murdered. Mainstream media, either under fear of jihadists or out of ideological orientation of majority of journalists, chose to hide the identity of Shia victims and create false binaries which made it difficult for the people to understand the gravity of the situation and researchers and human rights activists to gather the correct data and form a realistic narrative.Abbas Zaidi,
Covering Faith-Based Violence: Structure and Semantics of News Reporting in Pakistan
, in: J. Syed et al. (eds.), Faith-Based Violence and Deobandi Militancy in Pakistan, Palgrave Macmillan, (2016). Another tactic deployed for this strategy of confusion was to change the names of sectarian outfits: in the 1980s Tanzim-e-Ahlesunnat (TAS) had come to be known as Sipahe Sahaba (SSP), in the 1990s a new umbrella was set up under the name of

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ; ur, ) or "Army of Jhangvi", is a Deobandi Sunni supremacist, terrorist and jihadist militant organisation based in Afghanistan. The organisation operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is an offshoot of anti-Shi ...

(LeJ), whose members, if caught red-handed, were supported by SSP's lawyers and funding. In 2001, after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

on the Twin Towers in the United States, Pakistan decided to join America in her war against terrorism. President Musharraf banned

and Sipah-e-Muhammad. In October 2001, Mufti Nizam al-Din Shamzai, a renowned Deobandi religious authority, issued a ''

fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist ...

'' calling for ''

Jihad Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with G ...

'' against the US and Pakistani States. This fatwa justified means by ends and apostatised government employees as infidels. The fourth point of the fatwa reads: "''All those governments of the Muslim countries who side with America in this crusade, and putting on their disposal the land and resources, or sharing intelligence with them, are no more legitimate. It is a duty of every Muslim to bring these governments down, by any means possible''". It has been quoted by the terrorists groups as religious justification of their acts of violence, such as targeting government offices and spreading chaos through suicide bombings. The prime targets of these attacks have been the Shia Muslims. The incidents of violence in cities occur more often than in rural areas. This is because the urban middle class is easy to radicalise, especially the people migrating from rural areas to seek refuge in religious organisations to fight the urban culture and to look for new friends of similar rural mindset. Increasing urbanisation was one of the root causes of the violence in Lucknow in the 1930s. Justin Jones says: "''one of the greatest contributing social factors to Shi'a-Sunni conflict throughout the 1930s was the massive shift of population and demography taking place in Lucknow. Before the 1920s, colonial Lucknow had been slow to modernise and remained largely stagnant both in terms of economic and population growth. However, Lucknow's quick development thereafter into a major provincial centre of industry and trade saw the city's population spiral after 1921 from some 217,000 to 387,000 in just twenty years''". In July 2020, the

Punjab Legislative Assembly The Punjab Legislative Assembly or the Punjab Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the state of Punjab in India. The Sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly was constituted in March 2022. At present, it consists of 117 members, di ...

of Pakistan passed the ''Tahaffuz-e-Bunyad-e-Islam'' (Protection of Foundation of Islam) Bill, making it mandatory for all Pakistanis to identically revere esteemed Sunni figures as the only acceptable version of Islam in Pakistan. The passing of the bill sparked outrage among the Shia clergy that the bill was contrary to Shia beliefs. In August 2020, about 42 blasphemy cases were registered primarily targeting Shias including a three-year-old Shia child. Thousands of Pakistanis marched for an anti-Shia protest in Karachi, the country's financial hub, on 11 September 2020, also the death anniversary of

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (, ; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the ...

, founder of Pakistan and himself a Shia. The march was caused due to Shia clergies making disparaging remarks against historical Islamic figures. The remarks were televised during the Shia

Ashura Ashura (, , ) is a day of commemoration in Islam. It occurs annually on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. Among Shia Muslims, Ashura is observed through large demonstrations of high-scale mourning as it marks ...

procession. Ashura commemorates the

Battle of Karbala The Battle of Karbala ( ar, مَعْرَكَة كَرْبَلَاء) was fought on 10 October 680 (10 Muharram in the year 61 AH of the Islamic calendar) between the army of the second Umayyad Caliph Yazid I and a small army led by Husayn ...

, which caused the schism in Islam. Sunni groups demanded that disparaging remarks against any Islamic figures were not acceptable and will not be tolerated.

Deobandis

Deobandis have alleged a bias towards Barelvis by the Punjab Government. In December 2011, Deobandi clerics said that over the past 3 years, 19 of their mosques had been illegally occupied by Barelvis. They also alleged that Pakistan intelligence agencies were harassing their followers and as a consequence, boycotted a meeting on

Muharram Muḥarram ( ar, ٱلْمُحَرَّم) (fully known as Muharram ul Haram) is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is forbidden. It is held to be the second holiest month after ...

to promote harmony between Muslim sects. On 18 May 2000, leading Deobandi leader and scholar Mullah

Muhammad Yusuf Ludhianvi Muhammad Yousuf Ludhianvi (1932–2000) was a Pakistani Sunni Muslim scholar, author, ''muhaddith'', Ahrari leader, and Vice President of Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat. He was born in Esapur, Ludhiana, Eastern Punjab, India. He was ...

, who taught at one of Pakistan's largest Deobandi seminaries, the

Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia ( ur, , ''Jāmi‘ah ‘Ulūm-i Islāmīyah'' / , ''Jāmi‘atul-‘Ulūmul-Islāmīyah'') is an Islamic University in Banoori Town, Karachi, Pakistan. The university continues the tradition of the Darul Uloom system ...

, was gunned down by unidentified attackers in Karachi, in a suspected targeted sectarian killing. On 30 May 2004, religious scholar Mufti

Nizamuddin Shamzai Nizamuddin Shamzai (12 July 1952 – 30 May 2004) was a pro-Taliban Pakistani Sunni Islamic scholar and the senior professor of hadith at the Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia. He was considered "one of the most important Deobandi figures in Pakistan" an ...

, Shaykh al-Hadith of Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia was assassinated in Karachi. On 22 March 2020, an assassination attempt was made on prominent intellectual leader and religious scholar of the Deobandi movement Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani which he survived. On 10 October 2020, prominent religious scholar Maulana Muhammad Adil Khan, head of

Jamia Farooqia Jamia Farooqia is an Islamic seminary in Pakistan, having two branches, one located in the Shah Faisal Colony in Karachi, and the other in Hub Chowki. Established in 1967 by Saleemullah Khan, an alumnus of Darul Uloom Deoband, the seminar ...

was gunned down by unidentified attackers in Karachi in apparent sectarian violence.

Sufism

In two years, 2010 and 2011, 128 people were killed and 443 were injured in 22 attacks on shrines and tombs of saints and religious people in Pakistan, most of them Sufi in orientation. Sufism, a mystical Islamic tradition, has a long history and a large popular following in Pakistan. Popular Sufi culture is centred on Thursday night gatherings at shrines and annual festivals which feature Sufi music and dance. Contemporary Islamic fundamentalists criticise its popular character, which in their view, does not accurately reflect the teachings and practice of the Prophet and his companions.

Ahmadis

Ahmadi Muslims Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...

were declared to be 'Non-Muslims' by the Bhutto government which gave into Sunni extremist pressure in 1974 and they were further deprived of their basic religious rights in the

Second Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan The Second Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan ( ur, ) became a part of the Constitution of Pakistan on September 7, 1974 under the Government of Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. It declared that Ahmadis were non-Muslims. It also made way ...

and

Ordinance XX Ordinance XX ( ur, آرڈیننس 20) is a legal ordinance of the Government of Pakistan that was promulgated under the regime of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq on 26 April 1984 and is meant to prohibit the practice of Islam and the usage of Islamic ...

which has led to thousands of cases of Ahmadis being charged with various offences for alleged blasphemy and further fueled the Sectarian tensions which exist in Pakistan. Many thousands of Ahmadis were killed in the

1953 Lahore riots The Lahore riots of 1953 were a series of violent riots against the Ahmadiyya Movement, a faith marginalized in Pakistan, mainly in the city of Lahore, Pakistan as well as the rest of Punjab, which were eventually quelled by the Pakistan Army who ...

, in the

1974 Anti-Ahmadiyya riots 1974 Anti-Ahmadiyya riots was the single largest killing and looting of Ahmadi in Pakistan's history. Background and Reasons One of the major controversial differences between Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims ...

and the

May 2010 attacks on Ahmadi mosques in Lahore The May 2010 Lahore attacks, also referred to as the Lahore massacre, occurred on 28 May 2010, in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, during Friday prayers. 94 people were killed and more than 120 others were injured in nearly simultaneous attacks against t ...

. The 1953 riots were the largest killings of

. In 2014, a prominent Canadian national surgeon, Dr. Mehdi Ali Qamar was killed in front of his family while he was on a humanitarian visit to Pakistan, one of 137 other Ahmadis who were killed in Pakistan from 2010–2014. Following the 2010 Lahore massacre,

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

Secretary-General

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Ministe ...

, said "Members of this religious community have faced continuous threats, discrimination and violent attacks in Pakistan. There is a real risk that similar violence might happen again unless advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence is adequately addressed. The Government must take every step to ensure the security of members of all religious minorities and their places of worship so as to prevent any recurrence of today's dreadful incident." Ban's spokesperson expressed condemndation and extended his condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government.

Christians

A Christian church in Islamabad was attacked after 11 September 2001, and some Americans were among the dead. On 22 September 2013, a twin

suicide bomb attack A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

took place at

All Saints Church All Saints Church, or All Saints' Church or variations on the name may refer to: Albania * All Saints' Church, Himarë Australia * All Saints Church, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory * All Saints Anglican Church, Henley Brook, Western Aus ...

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

, in which 127 people were killed and over 250 injured. On 15 March 2015, two blasts took place at

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and Christ Church during Sunday service at

Youhanabad Youhanabad is an area in Lahore, Pakistan. It is the largest majority Christian area in the city. A 2006 report put the number of inhabitants at 200,000, while it was reported by ''DAWN'' in 2015 that the area was home to at least 100,000 Christian ...

town of

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th List of largest cities, most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is th ...

. At least 15 people were killed and seventy were wounded in the attacks.

Hindus

Hindus in Pakistan have faced persecution due to their religious beliefs. Because of this, some of them choose to take refuge in next-door India. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan data, just around 1,000 Hindu families fled to India in 2013. In May 2014, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, revealed in the National Assembly of Pakistan that around 5,000 Hindus are migrating from Pakistan to India every year. Those Pakistani Hindus who have fled to India allege that Hindu girls are sexually harassed in Pakistani schools, adding that Hindu students are made to read the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...

and that their religious practices are mocked. The Indian government is planning to issue Aadhaar cards and PAN cards to Pakistani Hindu refugees, and simplifying the process by which they can acquire Indian citizenship.

Persecution

Separate electorates for Hindus and Christians were established in 1985 – a policy originally proposed by Islamist leader

Abul A'la Maududi Abul A'la al-Maududi ( ur, , translit=Abū al-Aʿlā al-Mawdūdī; – ) was an Islamic scholar, Islamist ideologue, Muslim philosopher, jurist, historian, journalist, activist and scholar active in British India and later, following the part ...

. Christian and Hindu leaders complained that they felt excluded from the county's political process, but the policy had strong support from Islamists. In the aftermath of the

Babri Masjid demolition The demolition of the Babri Masjid was illegally carried out on 6 December 1992 by a large group of activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organisations. The 16th-century Babri Masjid in the city of Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, had ...

Pakistani Hindus faced riots. Mobs attacked five Hindu temples in Karachi and set fire to 25 temples in towns across the province of

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

. Shops owned by Hindus were also attacked in

Sukkur Sukkur (; ) is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh along the western bank of the Indus River, directly across from the historic city of Rohri. Sukkur is the third largest city in Sindh after Karachi and Hyderabad, and 14th largest city ...

. Hindu homes and temples were also attacked in

Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in south-west of the country close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is the capital of th ...

. In 2005, 32 Hindus were killed by firing from the government side near Nawab Akbar Bugti's residence during bloody clashes between Bugti tribesmen and paramilitary forces in

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

. The firing left the Hindu residential locality near Bugti's residence badly hit. The rise of

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

insurgency in Pakistan has been an influential and increasing factor in the persecution of and

discrimination against religious minorities in Pakistan The situation of Human Rights in Pakistan ( ur, ) is complex as a result of the country's diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a sovereign Islamic democracy with a mixture of both Islamic and secular law. The Const ...

, such as Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, and other minorities. It is said that there is persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan. In July 2010, around 60 members of the minority Hindu community in

were attacked and evicted from their homes following an incident of a

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...

Hindu youth drinking water from a tap near an Islamic mosque. In January 2014, a policeman standing guard outside a Hindu temple at Peshawar was gunned down. Pakistan's Supreme Court has sought a report from the government on its efforts to ensure access for the minority Hindu community to temples – the Karachi bench of the apex court was hearing applications against the alleged denial of access to the members of the minority community.

Sikhs

The Sikh community of Pakistan has faced persecution in the form of targeted killings, forced conversions and denied opportunities. Sikhs are also forced to pay the discriminatory ''

jizya Jizya ( ar, جِزْيَة / ) is a per capita yearly taxation historically levied in the form of financial charge on dhimmis, that is, permanent non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law. The jizya tax has been understood in ...

'', (protection money to be allowed to continue practicing their faith), and as per reports, Sikhs who have refused to pay ''jizya'' have been killed publicly. Thousands of Sikhs have emigrated to safer countries like India. As per rights campaigners, the population of Sikhs in Pakistan has dropped from 2 million in 1947 to around 40,000 in 2002 and 8,000 in 2019.

Others

In December 2021 , a mob in Pakistan tortured, killed and then set on fire a Sri Lankan man who was accused of blasphemy over some posters he had allegedly taken down. Priyantha Diyawadana, a Sri Lankan national who worked as general manager of a factory of the industrial engineering company Rajco Industries in Sialkot, Punjab, was set upon by a violent crowd on Friday.

Bibliography

* Saif, Mashal. The 'Ulama in Contemporary Pakistan: Contesting and Cultivating an Islamic Republic. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sectarian Violence In Pakistan History of Pakistan Islam in Pakistan Religiously motivated violence in Pakistan Schisms in Islam Shia Islam in Pakistan Christianity in Pakistan Hinduism in Pakistan Sikhism in Pakistan Conflicts in 2022 Persecution by Muslims