How sectarian violence is deepening Shia-Sunni divide in Pakistan

The sectarian violence in the Kurram district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province between Shia and Sunni groups has left more than 130 people dead, creating a serious security challenge to local authorities. A declared ceasefire has failed to stabilize the situation. 

Several Sunni extremist groups have reportedly joined hands to target Shia, especially against the banned militant group, Zainabiyoun Brigade. The minority Shia community in Pakistan has blamed the federal security agencies of failure to guarantee them security in the Kurram district surrounded by majority Sunni villages and Afghanistan on the other side.

The highway connecting the district to the rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has seen rising attacks against Shia travelers despite the security provided to their convoys. The recent violence flared in Kurram district on November 21 when gunmen ambushed a vehicle convoy and killed 52 people, mostly Shia Muslims.  Nobody claimed responsibility for the assault, which triggered retaliatory firing and arson by rival groups in several areas.

Social media websites have published images indicating a direct involvement of some locals and Sunni groups in the attack on the Shia-majority convoy. In the retaliatory attacks, Zainabiyoun Brigade, a Shia militant group in the region, targeted the Sunni community and their properties in the district, resulting in several fatal casualties.

Despite a temporary ceasefire between the two groups, violence continued in different areas of the district. Local media reported that people cannot travel, and the scarcity of food and medicine is causing significant hardship.

 The main highway linking the city of Parachinar with the provincial capital, Peshawar, remains closed to all traffic, leading to shortages of food, fuel, and medicine. Trade and movement at the Kharlachi border with Afghanistan have also stopped.

Only after the casualties of over 130 people did the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and Islamabad decide to initiate peace dialogues between Shia and Sunni groups. Some media reports suggest that tensions are running high in Kurram, and people have alleged the involvement of ‘external’ elements in the ongoing violence.

Notably, the Zainabiyoun Brigade has been blamed as an alleged proxy of Iran, while Sunni outfits in the region receive support from across the border and Pakistan’s security agencies.

The overall security situation of Shias has become worse in Pakistan and human rights activists blame top military individuals for increased radicalism, leading to anti-Shia Deobandi groups like Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) and Barelvi Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) becoming active in the last two years.

Many targeted attacks have taken place against Shia religious leaders, politicians, and activists in different parts of Pakistan.The rise of militant groups from rival sects has transformed Kurram into a battleground for sectarian dominance.  Shias blame Sunni extremist groups - including the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Islamic State-Khorasan, and Lashkar-e Jhangvi - are trying to exterminate or expel them from Kurram.  Many of the groups have targeted Shias, whom they see as “apostates.”

In some of the worst violence in Kurram in recent decades, around 2,000 people, mostly Shia, were killed between 2007 and 2011 when the TTP tried to overrun the district.

Since July this year, dozens from both sides have been killed in Kurram, when a land dispute turned into general sectarian violence. In addition to local land issues, the deadly sectarian violence in Kurram is also borne out of weak governance and political marginalization.

The “selected” governments in Pakistan and the powerful military, which has an oversized role in domestic and foreign affairs, have also eroded democratic norms and institutions, especially in border provinces like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. In 2019, Pakistan passed a law that granted security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sweeping powers, including detaining suspects indefinitely or without charge. 

Moreover, there is increasing anti-Shia propaganda on social media and among local communities in the country.  As a result, the violence against Shias in Kurram has become normalized, and the federal government is simply ignoring the emerging situation there. One more reason for the unchecked violence in the region is the sheer ignorance of the Pashtun’s rights in Pakistan.

After the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the minority Pashtun community in the country has witnessed increased racism and targeted violence from terror groups and Pakistan’s military establishment. 

With the announcement of a new counter terrorism operation in the country, Azm-i-Istehkam (Resolve for Stability), Pashtuns are facing daily attacks, illegal arrests, online racism, and limited supplies of essential food and energy items in the Pashtun-dominated areas.