Saquib Salim

“The very thought that Muharram is arriving sent chills down my spine. When these terrorist organizations keep attacking the mosques and localities of their opponents (Shias) during other months, one can only imagine the terror they will unleash during the month of Muharram.” Popular Pakistani Urdu poet Jaun Elia wrote these words in May 1999. 

The fear that Jaun Elia, a muhajir (a person who had migrated from India after the partition), had was not unfounded. Shias in Pakistan have been facing constant sectarian attacks since the very foundation of this nation. In 1963, on the day of Ashura (10th of Muharram) Taziya processions were attacked by extremists in several cities and towns of Pakistan. In Khairpur district a mob attacked and set an Imambargah on fire killing dozens of Shia inside it. The government admitted that more than a hundred Shias were killed that day, while non-government sources put the casualties even higher. It is needless to mention that not a single person was ever punished. 

Abdul Nishapuri has compiled the number of Shias killed in sectarian violence in Pakistan and notes, “militants have killed more than 23,500 Shia Muslims” between 1963 and June 2021. One can understand why Jaun Elia was so much concerned for the safety of Shias in Pakistan and why several scholars have termed this anti-Shia violence: a slow ‘genocide of Shias’.

Extremists are not the only threat to the Shias. In 1969, at least 7 Shias were killed by police bullets in Jhang during the Ashura procession. There were several incidents when police or armed forces actively participated in anti-Shia violence in the month of Muharram. In 1985, Police killed at least 35 Shias in Quetta. In the same city, several other incidents of police firings on Shias have been reported.

Juan Elia

I can safely argue that praying at Shia mosques and Imambargahs during the month of Muharram in Pakistan is the deadliest religious ritual in the world. In the 21st century, terrorists have targeted Shia mosques the most. More than 10,000 Shias have lost lives while praying in the last two decades. 

On 4 March 2022, at least 63 Shias were killed by a suicide bomber when they were offering Friday prayers at a mosque in Peshawar. One of the deadliest planned attacks was unearthed by police in 2008 when terrorists poisoned “water fountains (sabîl) posted along the route of Muharram processions with cyanide” which would have been coordinated with bomb blasts. In 2006, multiple blasts hit the procession in Hangu after which several villages inhabited by Shias were attacked with rockets and mortars. The number of casualties remained disputed.

In 2012, several places, Shia mosques, and Imambargahs were bombed in Pakistan. In Rawalpindi, at least 23 were killed by a suicide bomber at an Imambargah. A bomb blast at Khanpur accounted for 18 deaths. In Dera Ismail Khan at least 14 Shias were killed in a blast. The same year terrorists bombed a three-bus convoy of Shia pilgrims going to Iran in Mastung killing at least 20. 

Andreas T. Rieck in his book, The Shias of Pakistan: An Assertive and Beleaguered Minority, writes, “This wave of violence against Shias occurred against the background of a generalized campaign of terror by extremists in Pakistan, spearheaded since 2007 by the Tahrîk-i Tâlibân-i Pâkistân (TTP) which claimed more than 10,000 lives in the years 2009–12 alone and was closely related to the conflict in neighbouring Afghanistan. But Shias have been at risk of becoming random victims of terror more than any other group of Pakistan’s citizens. And while law enforcement agencies have often acted with resolve and courage against criminal extremists, they have not always received the necessary backing from political leaders and the judiciary. A case in point has been the release on bail of the LeJ (Lashkar e Jhangvi) hit-man Malik Muhammad Ishaq in July 2011 for “lack of evidence”, although after his arrest in 1997, he had been accused of murdering seventy people, most of them Shias, in forty-four different cases. And sometimes even convicted mass murderers affiliated to the LeJ have been allowed to escape from their prison cells.”

Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy

In 2012, The Dawn reported Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy as saying, “Describing the killings as sectarian is outrageous because a conflict assumes two warring sides. But in fact, here there is just one side – the Shias – which is being massacred. Pakistan was conceived in haste with just one goal in mind – Muslims must be separated from Hindus, and then somehow all Muslims will live together in bliss. Zero thought was given to what happens when religious fervour is aroused.”

Muharram is a month of mourning for Muslims in general and Shias in particular across the globe in remembrance of the martyrdom of Imam Husain and his family members at Karbala in 680 AD. But in Pakistan, thanks to terrorists, it is a month of terror and horror for Shia Muslims. Their places of worship are bombed, fired upon, burnt down, and attacked during this month.