Sectarian killings in Pak
K.N. Pandita
Planted explosive attack on the chehlum Shia procession in Khanpur, Pakistan killing more than twenty and wounding as many people is not the first of its kind. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has publicly announced its agenda of suppressing Pakistani Shia Muslims by sheer muscle power. The minority community is under constant threat of decimation at the hands of the majority Sunni sect. This proves that the two-nation theory on the basis of which Pakistan was crated holds good in respect of Pakistani sects as well.
Therefore the logic is that Pakistani Shias will be justified in asking a separate homeland carved out of majority Shia districts of Pakistan. Iran, the lone Shia country in the Islamic world should support the demand of a separate homeland for the Shias of Pakistan because Iran has religious, ideological and cultural closeness with the Pakistani Shias. Moreover Iran, like Pakistan, has also been espousing on national and international platforms the cause of their co-religionists in neighbouring countries.
Fanatics in Pakistan are the worst type of intolerant people who take pride in shedding the blood of innocent people in the name of religion. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is the frontline group of Sipahe Sahaba which has undertaken the agenda of eliminating non-Sunni and non-Wahhabi sects of Pakistani Muslims and other minorities. Not only the Shia but Christians, too, are their targets for whom life in Pakistan has been made miserable. After they perform their atrocious acts on minorities, Pakistani government usually turns its head away on the perfidy and lets the culprits go scot free. The first to be targeted were the Ahmadias who are now not recognized as a Muslim sect in Pakistan.
It may also be mentioned that while 53-member strong OIC is quick to pass resolutions against India on Kashmir, the organization puts under heavy wraps the incidents like the one we are referring to in these columns. Some members from the OIC organization should raise the issue of sectarian killings in Pakistan and demand OIC instituting a commission of enquiry into these atrocities and suggest remedial measures.