2012 Kohistan Shia massacre | |
---|---|
Part of sectarian violence in Pakistan | |
Location | Kohistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan |
Date | 28 February 2012 (UTC+5:00) |
Target | Shia Muslims |
Attack type | Mass murder |
Deaths | 18 |
Perpetrator | Jundallah |
Motive | Anti-Shia sentiment |
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. [1] [2]
Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Jundallah, a locally banned terrorist organization associated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. The attack was followed by nationwide protests by the Pakistani Shia community, wherein they demanded that perpetrators be caught and security be provided to the Shia minority in the Sunni-majority country.
Religious extremism is prevalent in Pakistan. Members of the Shia community have been targeted in a number of attacks against the shias in the country. There have been several Incidents of killing of Shia Muslims and bomb blasts in the Shia mosque in Pakistan. [1] The Sunni extremist groups commonly attack government and civilian targets in north-west Pakistan, along with others that they consider to be infidels. [2] The Shias in Pakistan frequently complain that "the Pakistani state does little to stop the attacks and has even released from custody notorious militants accused of carrying them out." [2]
The convoy of four buses were travelling from Rawalpindi, Punjab to Gilgit, Gilgit Baltistan. On an empty stretch of the Karakoram Highway (KKH), Kohistan, (an area with a high Sunni population [2] ), 10 to 12 gunmen in military uniform flagged the bus for stopping. After the bus halted, gunmen boarded and asked for the passenger's identity cards. After checking them, the gunmen dragged a group of Shia men including three children off the bus. [1] They were made to stand in a line by the roadside. Their hands were tied to their back and then shot. [3] After the shooting the gunmen resorted to aerial firing and moved to the nearby hilly areas. [3]
Among those killed was also a Sunni Muslim named Nisar Ahmed, the bus driver. He was killed along with the others as the gunmen did not believe he was a Sunni Muslim. A police official who had interviewed survivors said that "Nisar was shot dead when he erred in answer regarding Fajr prayers". [3]
The Federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik told reporters that the perpetrators had been caught. However, mass protests erupted in Gilgit as locals demanded compensation of PR 5 million for relatives of each victim. [4] [5] An individual named Ahmad Marwat claiming to be the commander of the banned terrorist group Jundallah claimed responsibility for the act by contacting the media after the incident. [3]
On 13 April 2012, hundreds of activists of Shia Ulema Council staged a protest demonstration against sectarian violence in the Pakistan and demanded the government to provide security to the Shia community. [6] The protestors carried flags and banners and raised slogans against the government and the forces involved in terrorist activities, resulting in killing of dozens of Shias in Quetta and Gilgit-Baltistan. The leaders of SUC condemned the continued, targeted killings of Shias. They also blasted the government for its failure in maintaining law and order in Gilgit-Baltistan and called on it to take immediate action against those involved in the sectarian killings.[ citation needed ] The leaders claimed hundreds of people had died in Parachinar, Hangu, Quetta and Gilgit- Baltistan, and accused the authorities of watching silently the loss of Shia community.
On 14 April 2012, responding to a call by Islamia School of Kargil to express solidarity with the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, all shops and business establishments in the town remained closed and vehicles kept off the roads in Kargil in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Indian media claimed that protesters raised slogans against the Pakistani Government and Nayib Imam Jumma of Islamia School Kargil, Hujattul Islam Sheikh Hussain Mukaddas appealed to the Indian government to intervene and help stop the killings in the region. [7]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of the 'abhorrent attack,’ as well as to the government of Pakistan." [8]
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.
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 Salafi extremists from 2008 to 2014, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Sunni Sufis 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".
Qazi Nisar Ahmed is a Deobandi Muslim cleric and chief of the Tanzeem Ahle Sunnah wal Jamaat in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. He went into hiding on 15 October 2005, when the government sealed two mosques in response to sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shias, and ordered the arrests of seven top clerics of both sects, including Qazi Nisar.He can be saw in many videos trying to get empathy by sectarian and extremist outlawed parties like LEJ and TTP to spread sectarian violence across the country threatening Government, its law and order by showing his large number of supporters outside Gilgit Baltistan. He was reported to be living outside of Pakistan. Northern Areas had requested that Interpol arrest him; however, he instead returned of his own free will on the evening of 10 March 2006 and surrendered to Gilgit police, who flew him to Islamabad.
The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, is a Deobandi supremacist, terrorist and militant organisation based in Afghanistan. The organisation operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is an offshoot of anti-Shia party Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The LeJ was founded by former SSP activists Riaz Basra, Malik Ishaq, Akram Lahori, and Ghulam Rasool Shah.
Jundallah was a militant group associated with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The group was commanded by militant Hakimullah Mehsud, the Emir of TTP, until his death on 1 November 2013. Ahmed Marwat was the spokesman of the group. On 17 November 2014, a group spokesman told Reuters that it had vowed allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, after a meeting with a three-man delegation from the group. In January 2017, the Government of Pakistan imposed, interalia, a ban on Jundullah and other splinter groups that claimed responsibility for terror attacks.
The September 2010 Quetta bombing occurred on 3 September 2010 in Quetta, Pakistan. At least 73 people were killed and 206 injured when a bomb exploded in a Quds Day procession which Shias were carrying out to express solidarity with Palestinians.
The 2011 Mastung bus shooting was an armed attack on 20 September 2011 on a bus traveling in Mastung District near the city of Quetta in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. The attack left at least 26 people dead. The victims were Shi'a Muslim pilgrims of the Hazara community, suggesting the attack to have been a targeted killing of sectarian nature. The attack occurred in Luck Pass area near Mastung. The bus was leaving Quetta for Taftan, Balochistan. In addition, 2 others were killed in a follow-up attack on a car on its way to rescue the survivors of the bus attack, which raised the death toll to 28 on that day.
The Hazaras have long been the subjects of persecution in Afghanistan. The Hazaras are mostly from Afghanistan, primarily from the central regions of Afghanistan, known as Hazarajat. Significant communities of Hazara people also live in Quetta, Pakistan and in Mashad, Iran, as part of the Hazara and Afghan diasporas.
This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2012. Pakistan has faced numerous attacks by insurgents as a result of the ongoing War in North-West Pakistan by the Pakistani military against militant groups, part of the War on Terror. At the same time, there have also been numerous drone attacks in Pakistan carried out by the United States which exclusively target members of militant groups along the Afghan border regions.
Human rights abuses in the province ofBalochistan refers to the human rights violations that are occurring in the ongoing insurgency in Balochistan. The situation has drawn concern from the international community. The human rights situation in Balochistan is credited to the long-running conflict between Baloch nationalists and Pakistani security forces.
Human rights abuses in Kashmir have been perpetrated by various belligerents in the territories controlled by both India and Pakistan since the two countries' conflict over the region began with their first war in 1947–1948, shortly after the partition of British India. The organized breaches of fundamental human rights in Kashmir are tied to the contested territorial status of the region, over which India and Pakistan have fought multiple wars. More specifically, the issue pertains to abuses committed in Indian-administered Kashmir and in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
2011 Hazara Town shooting refers to a massacre of Hazara people on 6 May 2011 in Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan which left 8 dead and at least 15 wounded. The shooting took place early in the morning around 0630 hrs Pakistan Standard Time in a park when people were doing morning-exercises, playing cricket and football. Three rockets were fired which was followed by heavy gunfire. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the attack.
The persecution of Hazaras in Quetta, is a series of ethnic or religious motivated attacks on Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan.
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.
On 16 February 2013, at least 91 people were killed and 190 injured after a bomb hidden in a water tank exploded at a market in Hazara Town on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan, Pakistan. Most of the victims were members of the predominantly Shia Twelver ethnic Hazara community, and authorities expected the death toll to rise due to the large number of serious injuries. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group claimed responsibility for the blast, the second major attack against the Shia Hazaras in a month.
The 1988 Gilgit massacre was the state-sponsored mass killing of Shia civilians in the Gilgit District of Pakistan who revolted against military dictator Zia-ul-Haq's Sunni Islamist regime, responsible for vehement persecution of religious minorities as part of its Islamization program.
On 15 June 2013, a series of bombings and a subsequent siege resulted in the deaths of 26 people and injuries to dozens more. On the same day, separatist militants attacked and demolished the historic Quaid-e-Azam Residency in Ziarat.
The 2013 Nanga Parbat massacre was a terrorist attack that took place on the night of 22 June 2013 in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. About 16 terrorists, reportedly dressed in Gilgit−Baltistan Scouts uniforms, stormed a high-altitude mountaineering base camp and killed 11 people; 10 climbers and one local tourist guide. The climbers were from various countries, including Ukraine, China, Slovakia, Lithuania and Nepal. A Chinese citizen managed to escape the assailants, and a member of the group from Latvia happened to be outside the camp during the attack. The attack took place at a base camp on Nanga Parbat, the ninth-highest mountain on Earth. The mountain is popular among trekkers and mountaineers, and is typically toured from June to August because of the ideal weather conditions during these months.
On 13 May 2015, eight gunmen attacked a bus travelling in Safoora Goth, Karachi, Sindh in Pakistan. The shooting left at least 46 people dead. All of the victims were of the Ismaili Shia Muslim minority, suggesting the attack was a targeted killing of sectarian nature.
On May 29, 2015, twenty-two passengers on a bus in Mastung, Pakistan were killed by gunmen when the bus they were in was hijacked. The gunmen were disguised as Pakistani security members. United Baloch Army (UBA), a militant group operating in Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the attack.