3 Shia pilgrims killed by Taliban / Sipah-e-Sahaba’s Quetta Shura
QUETTA, Pakistan — Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan opened fire on pilgrims bound for Iran on Friday, killing three Shiite Muslims and wounding seven others, in what police said was a sectarian attack.
Four people riding two motorbikes sprayed bullets on the pilgrims when their bus stopped near a restaurant, near Hazar Gangi bus station, on the outskirts of Quetta, the main city in the insurgency-hit province of Baluchistan, local police chief Asif Sheikh said.
“Three people including a woman were killed and six others wounded,” he told AFP. The assailants managed to escape.
The pilgrims from the minority Shiite community had left the southern port city of Karachi and were heading through Baluchistan to Iran to visit holy sites, senior police officer Zaman Tareen said.
“It was a sectarian attack. The victims were Shiite Muslims,” he added.
Hundreds of people have died in oil and gas-rich Baluchistan since late 2004, when rebels rose up demanding political autonomy and a greater share of the profits from the province’s abundant natural resources.
Impoverished Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has also been troubled by Islamist and sectarian violence.
Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan’s population, which is mainly Sunni. The groups usually coexist peacefully but outbreaks of sectarian violence have claimed more than 4,000 lives across Pakistan since the late 1980s. The predominantly Deobandi / Wahhabi militants of the Taliban / Sipah-e-Sahaba consider Shias as infidels and condone their killing.
Editorial: Sectarian menace again
Sectarian violence seems to have reared its ugly head yet again in Balochistan with the murder by unidentified gunmen of three Shia pilgrims bound for Iran from Karachi. Considering that the victims were not even Baloch but were Sindhi, the ever-popular inclination to relate incidents like these to more tribal-based ethnic power plays goes right out the window. This was a target killing, plain and simple, where religious hatred was the usual suspect.
The Balochistan dilemma has been exemplary in illustrating how historically inept policies and ill-conceived ploys for dominance have consistently injected a toxic strain of intolerance for the Shia minority in the country. Attacks on imambargahs and religious congregations, as well as random killings of the Shia community with impunity have allowed the perpetrators to up the ante on sectarian conflict. Quetta has recently witnessed an upsurge in brutal cases of sectarian violence, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of Hazaras, most of whom are Shias, and even Shias who are not. These killings are no longer confined to the elimination of Shia clerics, as now everyone is fair game. The increasingly virulent form of Salafiism, generously imported from Saudi soil has allowed for justifications of a so-called jihad against the Shia community.
With such a religious ‘absolution’ to murder the Shia minority across the country and in particular Balochistan, counter measures should not be taken lightly. Dealing with such murderous groups must be serious and organized. This would require deep infiltration into these groups by law enforcement agencies, especially the intelligence agencies. Prevention would be much better than a mangled solution long after these many occurrences.
Balochistan does not take this sectarian matter lightly. The Pashtun example lies in front of them where the Taliban and religious fanatics destroyed the progressively secular Pashtun tribes by bringing out the Pashtun mullah who killed nationalist leaders and artists. Very soon, these killers of the Shia community will turn on themselves to eliminate anyone from their own ‘sect’ who does not fall under the umbrella of strict Salafiism, hence further heralding the death of Baloch culture as we know it. History teaches us many lessons and repeating itself is not necessarily a given.
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\02\01\story_1-2-2010_pg3_1