1988 Gilgit massacre

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1988 Gilgit Massacre
Part of Sectarian violence in Pakistan
Pakistan - Gilgit-Baltistan - Gilgit.svg
Location of the Gilgit District in Gilgit-Baltistan
Location Gilgit District, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
Coordinates 35°48′09″N74°59′00″E / 35.8026°N 74.9832°E / 35.8026; 74.9832
Date16–18 May 1988 [1]
Pakistan Standard Time (UTC+5:00)
Target Shia Muslims
Attack type
 Immolation, mass shooting, lynching, arson, mass rape
Deaths150–700
Injured100+
Victims Shia Muslims
Perpetrators
Defenders
Motive Anti-Shi'ism

The 1988 Gilgit massacre was the mass killing of Shia civilians in the Gilgit District of Pakistan. [4] The massacre was preceded by anti-Shia riots in early May 1988, which were caused by a dispute over the sighting of the moon for Eid al-Fitr after Ramadan between Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims. Local Sunnis, who were still fasting for Ramadan, had attacked the local Shias who had announced their commencement of Eid celebrations in Gilgit City, leading to violent clashes between the two sects. [4] [5]

Contents

Following a period of calm for about four days, the Zia-ul-Haq military regime reportedly sent a contingent of militants from the North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, accompanied by additional militants from neighbouring Afghanistan and local Sunni tribesmen from Chilas to "teach (the Shias) a lesson", which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Shia people. [4] [2] [6] [7] It is estimated that anywhere between 150 and 700 Shia Muslims were killed in the resulting massacre and violence, in which entire villages were also burnt down. The massacre also saw the mass rape of hundreds of Shia Muslim women by Sunni tribesmen from Afghan and NWFP. [4] [8]

Background

Shia Muslims living in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilgit-Baltistan have allegedly faced discrimination by the Pakistani government since its takeover of the region following the First Kashmir War between India and Pakistan in 1947–1948. [9] The Shias claimed that under Pakistani administration, Sunni Muslims enjoyed inherent advantages in all business matters, were unilaterally awarded official positions and treated preferentially in legal cases. On 5 July 1977, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq led a coup d'état in Pakistan, [10] establishing a military dictatorship, and committed himself throughout his tenure to converting Pakistan into a heavily conservative Islamic state and enforcing sharia law. [11] Zia's state-sponsored Islamization increased the sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and even between Sunni Deobandis and Barelvis. [12] The application of Sunni-centric laws throughout the country was divisive. [13] Attacks on Shias (as well as other religious minorities) increased exponentially under the rule of Zia-ul-Haq. The country's first major Shia–Sunni riots erupted in 1983 in Karachi, Sindh during the Islamic holy month of Muharram (which is especially significant for the Shia), and left at least 60 people dead. [13] Further Muharram disturbances and riots followed over the course of another three years, spreading to Lahore and the province of Balochistan—leaving hundreds more dead. In July 1986, Sunnis and Shias clashed in the northwest town of Parachinar, near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border; many of them were equipped with locally made automatic rifles. It is estimated that over 200 people died in this event of sectarian violence. [13]

Conflict

The Karakoram Highway was used to transport the assailants from Chilas and Indus Kohistan to Gilgit KKH.png
The Karakoram Highway was used to transport the assailants from Chilas and Indus Kohistan to Gilgit

The first major anti-Shia riots in Gilgit District broke out in May 1988, stemming from a Shia–Sunni dispute over the sighting of the moon, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid al-Fitr. When Shia Muslims in Gilgit City commenced their festivities for Eid, a group of local Sunni Muslims—who were still fasting for Ramadan as their religious leaders had not yet declared the sighting of the moon—attacked them, sparking a series of violent clashes between Gilgiti Sunnis and Shias. Following a period of calm for about four days, the Zia-ul-Haq military regime reportedly sent a contingent of militants from the North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, accompanied by additional militants from neighbouring Afghanistan and local Sunni tribesmen from Chilas to "teach (the Shias) a lesson", which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. [4]

Shia Muslims in Gilgit District were attacked and killed by a hundreds-strong force of Sunni jihadists, led by Osama bin Laden and backed by the Pakistani military. Shia women living in Gilgit District were also mass-raped by local Sunni tribesmen also the Afghan jihadists. [6] [14]

The Herald, the former monthly magazine publishing of the Dawn Media Group in Karachi, wrote in its April 1990 issue:

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 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 ... This led to violent clashes between the two sects. In 1988, after a brief calm of nearly four days, the military regime allegedly used certain militants along with local Sunnis to 'teach a lesson' to Shias, which led to hundreds of Shias and Sunnis being killed. [4]

Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark in their 2010 book Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons detail the involvement of Pakistan Army generals Mirza Aslam Beg and Pervez Musharraf and the Sunni militant group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan: [2] [15]

Undaunted, Musharraf had in 1988 been called on by General Beg to put down a Shia riot in Gilgit, in the north of Pakistan. Rather than get the Pakistan army bloodied, he inducted a tribal band of Pashtun and Sunni irregulars, many from the SSP [Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan] which had recently put out a contract on Bhutto, led by the mercenary Osama bin Laden (who had been hired by Hamid Gul to do the same four years earlier)." ... Bin Laden’s militia mounted a savage pogrom, killing more than 300, and when the fighting had subsided Musharraf opened an office for SSP extremists in Gilgit, helping spread their influence across Pakistan.

Casualties

The exact casualties figure of the 1988 Gilgit massacre has been disputed. Some sources state that 150 to 400 people were killed while hundreds of others were injured, [16] while other unofficial reports state that around 700 Shias were killed. [15] [17] [9] [6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ispahani, Mahnaz (2019). Roads and Rivals: The Political Uses of Access in the Borderlands of Asia. Cornell University Press. ISBN   978-1-5017-4591-1.
  2. 1 2 3 Levy & Scott-Clark, Deception (2010) , Chapter 13: "Undaunted, Musharraf had in 1988 been called on by General Beg to put down a Shia riot in Gilgit , in the north of Pakistan. Rather than get the Pakistan army bloodied, he inducted a tribal band of Pashtun and Sunni irregulars, many from the SSP [ Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan ] which had recently put out a contract on Bhutto , led by the mercenary Osama bin Laden (who had been hired by Hamid Gul to do the same four years earlier)."
  3. 1 2 3 B. Raman. "The Karachi Attack: The Kashmir Link". rediff.com . Retrieved 31 August 2025. Even though the report of the enquiry into the crash of the plane carrying Zia, the then US ambassador to Islamabad and other senior officials in August 1988 has not been allowed to be released by the Pakistani army, it is believed by many in Pakistan that the crash was caused by a Shia airman from Gilgit aggrieved over the bloodbath unleashed on the Shias by bin Laden's tribal hordes at Zia's instance. To keep the Shias under control, the military-intelligence establishment encouraged the Sunni extremist Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and its militant wing the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to open their branches in Gilgit. This led to the import of sectarian clashes, which frequently take place in Pakistani Punjab and Karachi, into the NA too. To counter the SSP and the LEJ, the Tehrik-e-Jaffria Pakistan, the Shia organisation, and its militant wing the Sipah Mohammad too opened their branches in NA to help the local Shias. While the SSP and TEJ came into existence in the 1980s, their militant wings came into existence in the 1990s. The SSP was financially assisted by the intelligence agencies of the USA, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the 1980s to counter Teheran's activities in the region. Iran retaliated by assisting the TEJ and the Sipah Mohammad. Being better trained and armed than the TEJ and Sipah Mohammad and enjoying the official patronage of the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment, the SSP and LEJ went on a rampage not only against the Shias of the NA, but also against those living in Punjab and Karachi, killing hundreds of Shias since the late 1980s.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Shamil, Taimur (12 October 2016). "This Muharram, Gilgit gives peace a chance". Herald . The area was not divided on sectarian lines in the past. The first major sectarian clash occurred almost 30 years ago, after anti-Shia riots broke out in May 1988 over the sighting of the moon, which ushers the end of the holy month of Ramzan. When Shias in Gilgit celebrated Eidul Fitr, a group of extremist Sunnis, still fasting because their religious leaders had not announced the sighting of the moon, attacked them. This led to violent clashes between the two sects. In 1988, after a brief calm of nearly four days, the military regime allegedly used certain militants along with local Sunnis to 'teach a lesson' to Shias, which led to hundreds of Shias and Sunnis being killed.
  5. ↑ "The sectarian spectre in Gilgit-Baltistan: Part III". The News International . Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 Silander, Daniel; Wallace, Don; Janzekovic, John (2016). International Organizations and The Rise of ISIL: Global Responses to Human Security Threats. Routledge. pp. 37–38. ISBN   9781315536088. Several hundred Shiite civilians in Gilgit, Pakistan, were massacred in 1988 by Osama Bin Laden and his Taliban fighters (Raman, 2004).
  7. ↑ Bansal, In Pursuit of Forced Assimilation (2007) , pp. 61–62: 'This was perceived by Pakistani establishment to be an Iranian sponsored 'Shia Revolt'. Zia put a Special Service Group (SSG) group commanded by then Brigadier Pervez Musharraf to suppress the revolt and Musharraf responded by transporting "a large number of Wahabi Pakhtoon tribesmen from the NWFP and Afghanistan" to Gilgit "to teach the Shias a lesson. These tribesmen massacred hundreds of Shias"'
  8. ↑ Murphy, Eamon (2013). The Making of Terrorism in Pakistan: Historical and Social Roots of Extremism. Routledge. p. 134. ISBN   9780415565264. Shias in the district of Gilgit were assaulted, killed and raped by an invading Sunni lashkar-armed militia-comprising thousands of jihadis from the North West Frontier Province.
  9. 1 2 Chaudhary, Muhammad Azam (2014). "The ways of revenge in Chilas, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan: Shia-Sunni clashes as blood feuds". Zeitschrift für Aktuelle Ethnologische Studien. 16 (1). Many Shias in the region feel that they have been discriminated against since 1948. They claim that the Pakistani government continually gives preferences to Sunnis in business, in official positions, and in the administration of justice...The situation deteriorated sharply during the 1980s under the presidency of the tyrannical Zia-ul Haq when there were many attacks on the Shia population. In one of the most notorious incidents, during May 1988 Sunni assailants destroyed Shia villages, forcing thousands of people to flee to Gilgit for refuge. Shia mosques were razed and about 100 people were killed
  10. ↑ Grote, Rainer (2012). Constitutionalism in Islamic Countries: Between Upheaval and Continuity. Oxford University Press. p. 196. ISBN   9780199910168.
  11. ↑ Kepel, Gilles (2002). Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (2006 ed.). I.B.Tauris. pp. 100–101. ISBN   9781845112578 . Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  12. ↑ Talbot, Ian (1998). Pakistan, a Modern History . NY: St. Martin's Press. p.  251. ISBN   9780312216061. The state sponsored process of Islamisation dramatically increased sectarian divisions not only between Sunni and Shia over the issue of the 1979 Zakat Ordinance, but also between Deobandis and Barelvis.
  13. 1 2 3 Broder, Jonathan (10 November 1987). "Sectarian Strife Threatens Pakistan's Fragile Society". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  14. ↑ Murphy, Eamon (2013). The Making of Terrorism in Pakistan: Historical and Social Roots of Extremism. Routledge. p. 134. ISBN   9780415565264. Shias in the district of Gilgit were assaulted, killed and raped by an invading Sunni Lashkar-armed militia-comprising thousands of jihadis from the Northwest Frontier Province.
  15. 1 2 Levy & Scott-Clark, Deception (2010) , Chapter 13: "Bin Laden’s militia mounted a savage pogrom, killing more than 300, and when the fighting had subsided Musharraf opened an office for SSP extremists in Gilgit, helping spread their influence across Pakistan.[8: Some accounts place the deaths at higher than 700. The claim made that Musharraf orchestrated the SSP move to Gilgit was by two of his contemporaries who spoke to the authors in the spring of 2006. The same claim was made in an author interview with Hamid Gul in the same month. B. Raman also made the claim in a paper for the South Asian Analyst Group.]"
  16. ↑ Ambreen Agha, "Gilgit-Baltistan: Murder most Foul", South Asia Intelligence Review, via New Age Islam , 5 March 2012; "Gilgit-Baltistan: Murder most Foul". Urdu Teehzeeb. 6 March 2012. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014.
  17. ↑ Bansal, Alok (2008), "Gilgit–Baltistan: The Roots of Political Alienation", Strategic Analysis, 32 (1): 81–101, doi:10.1080/09700160801886355, S2CID   144005945 : "These tribesmen destroyed property and killed hundreds in the villages in and around Gilgit. According to one estimate, more than 700 people were killed and injured and the brutality of these marauding hordes left an indelible mark in this hitherto peaceful region."

Bibliography

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