Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a Saudi-born Islamic dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, he participated in the Afghan Jihad against the Soviet Union and supported the activities of the Bosnian mujahideen during the Yugoslav Wars. Bin Laden is most widely known as the mastermind of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is a form of communal violence which is inspired by sectarianism, that is, discrimination, hatred or prejudice between different sects of a particular mode of an ideology or different sects of a religion within a nation/community. Religious segregation often plays a role in sectarian violence.
Islam is the largest and the state religion of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan has over 240 Million adherents of Islam. As much as 90% of the population follows Sunni Islam. Most Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, which is represented by the Barelvi and Deobandi traditions.
Islamization or Shariazation, has a long history in Pakistan since the 1950s, but it became the primary policy, or "centerpiece" of the government of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the ruler of Pakistan from 1977 until his death in 1988. Zia has also been called "the person most responsible for turning Pakistan into a global center for political Islam."
Tehreek-e-Jafaria was a Shia political party, which was founded in 1979 by Syed Arif Hussain Al Hussaini supported by Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussain Najafi Dhaku. Its creation coincided with the enforcement of controversial Islamic laws by then President of Pakistan, General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq. At the same time, 1979 Iranian Revolution in Shi'a Iran added extra confidence and comfort in the movement.
The situation of Human Rights in Pakistan 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.
Events in the year 1988 in Pakistan.
The Sipah-e-Sahaba (SS), also known as the Millat-e-Islamiyya (MI), is a Sunni Islamist organisation in Pakistan. Founded by Pakistani cleric Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in 1989 after breaking away from Sunni Deobandi party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), it was based in Jhang, Punjab, but had offices in all of Pakistan's provinces and territories. It operated as a federal and provincial political party until it was banned and outlawed as a terrorist organization by Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf in 2002 Though it has been banned by the Pakistani government on numerous occasions, the Sipah-e-Sahaba has continued to operate under a different name throughout the country; it has significant underground support in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The organization was also banned by the United Kingdom, where there is a significant Pakistani diaspora population, in 2001.
Sectarian violence in Pakistan refers to violence directed against people and places in Pakistan motivated by antagonism toward the target's religious sect. As many as 4,000 Shia are estimated to have been killed in sectarian attacks in Pakistan between 1987 and 2007, and thousands more Shia have been killed by Sunni extremists from 2008 to 2014, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Sunni Deobandis and Barelvis have also suffered from some sectarian violence, with attacks on religious shrines killing hundreds of worshippers, and some Deobandi leaders assassinated. Pakistan minority religious groups, including Hindus, Ahmadis, and Christians, have "faced unprecedented insecurity and persecution" in at least two recent years, according to Human Rights Watch. One significant aspect of the attacks in Pakistan is that militants often target their victims places of worship during prayers or religious services in order to maximize fatalities and to "emphasize the religious dimensions of their attack".
Syed Arif Hussain Al Hussaini was an Twelver Shīʿā Muslim scholar, Islamist ideologue, Islamic Jurist, and Islamic Revolutionist leader of Shia Muslims in Pakistan. He is also known as Khomanei-e-Pakistan for his activities which earned him the reputation of being one of the most prominent advocates for the Shia population of Pakistan. He viewed the ideas of secularism, nationalism, liberalism and socialism as evil, which he understood to be the influence of Western and Soviet imperialism.
Gilgit-Baltistan, formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and between India and China since 1959. It borders Azad Kashmir to the south, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the north, the Xinjiang region of China to the east and northeast, and the Indian-administered union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to the southeast.
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 immigration continued throughout the second millennium until the formation of modern nation states. Shi'ism also won converts among the local population.
Jalalabad is a village in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan. The settlement is located around 20 km east of Gilgit city. The village has a population of 5,000 households and approximately 40,000 residents. All of the inhabitants are Shia Muslims. The Bagrote River is the source of irrigation and the village's own powerhouse provides electricity. During the 1940s, people from Bilchar Valley, with the help of the British Indian Government, created water canals and established an irrigation system. It is predominantly agricultural land. There are two separate government high schools for boys and girls, Al-Mustafa Public School for both boys and girls. There are a large number of primary and middle schools. The literacy rate is approximately 96%. The village was the major victim of sectarian violence in 1988, when extra-regional forces consisting of thousands of armed militiamen under the command of General Zia Ul Haq and the Government ruined this village, burned houses, killing many innocent people. After this incident, the village was reconstructed. Now it is the center of Shias in Gilgit. The head of Shias of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khateeb of Gilgit Imamia Masjid Agha Rahat Hussain Al-Hussaini also come from this village.
On 28 February 2012, approximately 12 militants who were dressed in military uniforms stopped multiple buses on their routes through the Kohistan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. 18 passengers were subsequently taken out of the buses and executed by the militants; 17 of the 18 victims were identified as Shia Muslim residents of Gilgit–Baltistan who were travelling to the city of Gilgit from Rawalpindi, Punjab, while the remaining non-Shia victim was a Sunni Muslim who failed to convince the militants that he was not Shia. The victims were killed on the basis of their religious affiliation with the Shia sect of Islam after identification. Among the dead in the massacre were three children.
August 2012 Mansehra Shia massacre refers to the massacre of 25 Shia Muslim residents of Gilgit-Baltistan travelling from Rawalpindi, Punjab to Gilgit, Gilgit Baltistan in Pakistan. The bus was stopped in Mansehra District and the people were killed after checking their identification cards which showed they were from the Shia community by individuals dressed in Military uniforms. Darra Adam Khel faction of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Zakat Councils are responsible for collecting and distributing the Islamic taxes known as Zakat and Ushr in Pakistan. The councils are overseen by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. In Pakistan, the system of compulsory collection and distribution of Zakat and Ushr began in 1980, with an ordinance decreed by General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq calling for a 2.5% annual deduction from personal bank accounts on the first day of Ramadan, with the revenue to be used for poverty relief.
The Therhi massacre was a mass murder that occurred on 3 June 1963 in Thehri, Sindh, Pakistan. In it, 118 Shia Muslims were killed by a mob of Deobandi Muslims. Although it was not the first incident of violence against the Shia Muslims of Pakistan, this attack is considered to be the first major massacre of civilians in the Sindh.
History of Shi'ism in Kashmir is marked with conflict and strife, spanning over half a millennium. Incidents of sectarian violence occurred in Kashmir under the rule of Mirza Haider Dughlat, followed by the Mughals (1586–1752), the Afghans (1752–1819), the Sikhs (1819–1845) and the Dogras (1846–1947). A small Shia community has managed to survive in Kashmir till today. The shias comprise about 25-30% of the Kashmir's total population and live mostly in North and Central Kashmir. There are also many shia communities in South kashmir.
Nizamuddin Shamzai was a pro-Taliban Pakistani Deobandi 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" and "one" of the "most revered Sunni clerics" in Pakistan. He was the mentor of Mullah Mohammed Omar, and his madrassa, "taught many students who later became important members of the Taliban regime in Kabul". He issued religious edicts and travelled to elicit support for the Taliban, including a called for a “jihad” against the US after the Al-Qaeda September 11 attacks and US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Ziaism is a political ideology implemented in Pakistan from 1978 to 1988 by Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. The ideology endorses the idea of an Islamic state, influenced heavily by religion. It includes Islamic laws, industrialisation, militarism and authoritarianism. Zia and his doctrine are widely credited with making political Islam an influential movement within Pakistan, turning a relatively secular country into one that was based on Islamic law.
