On 12 October, clashes between Shias and Sunnis in the Kurram district of Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa resulted in the deaths of 16 people, including three women and two children. Conflict between religious sects in Pakistan has been omnipresent throughout the country’s history but was exacerbated during the era of General Zia-ul-Haq, which coincided with the Cold War and the Iranian revolution, both of which played pivotal roles in emphasizing the sectarian identities of Pakistanis, mainly between Shias and Sunnis. The demographic composition, political polarization, terrorism, and weak writ of the government especially exacerbate sectarian violence in Pakistan. Additionally, due to a porous border with Afghanistan, the hardcore Sunni Taliban may catalyze a new wave of sectarian violence in Pakistan.
The Deep-Rooted History of Sectarianism
The history of sectarianism in Pakistan predates the existence of Pakistan and started during the British Raj. However, the modern trend of sectarianism rose in Pakistan as a result of a dictatorial government from Sunni majority states against a backdrop of the Shia revolution. Zia-ul-Haq’s government was funded by the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the establishment of a Sunni-dominated group called Mujahideen against the Soviets; meanwhile, the Iranian government was toppled by the Shia revolutionaries, raising the insecurities of the Pakistani government that majorly followed the Sunni dominated domestic policies.
Sectarianism in Islam is an ancient and profoundly complex issue rooted in distinctly different interpretations of the Quran. Contemporary Shia-Sunni relations are brittle and profoundly susceptible to bouts of egregious violence, convoluting pathways to peace. Understanding sectarian violence in Pakistan demands an acknowledgment of the complex security landscape in the region, compounded by a history of polarized politics, warring terrorist organizations, and a fragile government.
Within a short span of six years between 2007 and 2013, the four provinces in Pakistan and then the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Agency of Kurram witnessed around 38,000 deaths as a result of sectarian violence. The enormous bloodshed, stemming from differences in beliefs, is ubiquitous from the rugged northern mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan to the dunes of Balochistan in the extreme south. In early August 2024, 49 people were killed and 200 were injured after a week of clashes in Parachinar, the capital of Kurram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The tribal conflict, exacerbated by the sectarian divide, resulted in widespread allegations of human rights violations.
Politicization of Sectarian Violence
The politics of sectarian extremism in Pakistan is highly complicated. Sectarian identity isn’t just about religious views. It’s also about the garnering of political power and ideological influence.
The roots of sectarianism in Islam date back hundreds of years when disagreements over who should be the rightful heir of the Prophet (PBUH) caused violent infighting. Since then, Shias and Sunnis have been the two major sects in Islam and are often in conflict with each other. Sunnis make up 80 to 85 percent of the Pakistani population, compared to which Shias are a minority. In the 1980s, military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq played a major role in Shia-Sunni conflict in the country. Zia’s era also coincided with the Iranian revolution, which led to heightened sectarian identities within Pakistan. Due to the majority of Sunnis in the country, Shias were at the detriment. In 1988, under Zia-ul-Haq’s rule, a large number of the Shia killings took place in Gilgit, allegedly under state sponsorship. Thousands of armed Sunni tribes killed 4000 Shias, burning several villages and retaliating on rumors of Sunni massacres by Shias.
In a more recent context, armed groups belonging to both Shi’ite and Sunni ideologues continue to pose massive roadblocks to peace. Zia’s violent tactics remain ever-present in today’s Pakistan, with religious followers on either side continuing to suffer from egregious violence.
Militarism of Ideology
All religious minorities in Pakistan face identity-based societal challenges, ranging from subtle discrimination to the threat of death at the hands of religious opposites. Militarized ideological fighters wage violence on one another, organizing attacks against their perceived enemy. Notably, sectarianism has been described by expert Syed Vali Nasr as “organized and militant religious-political activism.” The history of sectarianism in Pakistan tells us that through violence, the promotion of sectarian identity is emboldened. Ingratiated into Pakistani society by General Zia’s movement, hardline Islamist organizations mobilized through armed organizations to marginalize their opposite.
Religious minorities in Pakistan face identity-based societal challenges, ranging from subtle discrimination to the threat of death at the hands of religious opposites. For instance, In 2015, armed men opened fire on a bus carrying members of the minority Ismaili (a Shia subsect) community at Safoora Chowk in Karachi; this incident is remembered as the Safoora Carnage. Similarly, In February 2012, the Takfiri groups in Kohistan massacred 16 Shia passengers traveling from Rawalpindi to Gilgit-Baltistan on the Karakoram Highway (KKH). The bus had Shia pilgrims from Iran. This also demonstrates the international aspect of the sectarian conflict, where the Shia population in Pakistan gets support from Iran and the Sunni population from Saudi Arabia.
Most recently, on 12 October 2024, clashes between Shias and Sunnis in the Kurram district of Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa resulted in the deaths of 16 people, including three women and two children. The incident was complicated by the involvement of paramilitary officers and frontier police, who shot and killed two of the attackers. Observers of Pakistan’s tense security landscape have raised concern about the increased aggression of the police, given a slew of accusations positing that security forces fire upon protestors and uninvolved civilians. A failure of the rule of law in the country’s borderlands has fostered a sense of uncertainty regarding who the protectorate and the antagonists are. Further, the increased presence of Sunni extremist Deobandi militants, who are aligned with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), implicates organized armed extremists in the cycle of sectarian violence in Pakistan.
Conclusion
The ancient chronicles of Shia-Sunni relations remain very fragile and highly contentious. Appeasing the majority is a weapon for consolidating control over the masses. Unfortunately, religion and politics have always been deeply intertwined in Pakistani politics. As such, ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan continue to be repressed, facing further suffering at the hands of a virulent military complex fraught with political corruption.
While deeply-rooted religious differences are largely the catalyst of sectarian violence in Pakistan, socio-economic pressures, ethnic friction, and easily accessible arms from the fallout of the Afghan War galvanize violence between factions.
