GENERAL DEVELOPMENTS
“Ninety-five percent of the population is Muslim (75 percent Sunni and 25 percent Shia). Groups composing 5 percent of the population or less include Hindus, Christians, Parsis/Zoroastrians, Baha’is, Sikhs, Buddhists, and others. Ahmadis, who are legally prohibited from identifying themselves as Muslims, generally choose not to identify themselves as non-Muslims.” (
USDOS, 30 July 2012, Section 1)
“Since 2007 there has been a sharp resurgence of sectarian violence in Pakistan. […] Most frequently, such violence involves clashes between members of the two main sects of Islam – Sunnis and Shias – but violent incidents between the Barelvi and Deobandi sub-sects of Sunni Islam are also on the rise. […]The current resurgence of sectarian violence can be traced to the rise of the Pakistani Taliban in the mid-2000s and this organisation’s growing ties with militant sectarian organisations such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi […].” (
NOREF, 9 August 2012, pp. 1 and 3)
“During the reporting period, Pakistan continued to experience acts of violence against members of the majority faith whose views contradicted those of extremists and members of minority faith communities. Armed extremists, some with ties to violent extremist groups or the Pakistani Taliban, continued their attacks, including bombings, against Barelvi Sufis, Shi‘a Muslims, Ahmadis, and Christians. Sectarian or religiously-motivated violence reached beyond Pakistan’s tribal northwest, targeting groups in major urban centers and foreign countries.” (
USCIRF, March 2012, p. 122-123)
“Abuses under the blasphemy law and other discriminatory laws continued; the government did not take adequate measures to prevent these incidents or reform the laws to prevent abuse. Since the government rarely investigated or prosecuted the perpetrators of increased extremist attacks on religious minorities and members of the Muslim majority promoting tolerance, the climate of impunity continued. […] Societal intolerance and violence against minorities and Muslims promoting tolerance increased.” (
USDOS, 30 July 2012, Executive Summary)
“At least 389 people were killed and 601 injured in incidents of violence targeted against various Muslim sects in 2011. […] The targets in sectarian-related attacks included Shia pilgrims, mosques / Imambargahs, shrines, vehicles carrying members of the Shia community, and prayer leaders and religious parties activists. Target killings of Hazara Shias continued in Balochistan and the killers could not be arrested” (
HRCP, March 2012, p. 82-83).
“At least six Ahmedis were murdered in target killings apparently on account of their faith in 2011” (
HRCP, March 2012, p. 85). “Several incidents of violence and intimidation were reported against the Hindus during the year under review” (
HRCP, March 2012, p. 86). “The situation of Christians, one of the biggest minority groups in Pakistan along with Hindus, was not much different from other minority communities in the country” (
HRCP, March 2012, p. 87). “The complaints of discrimination of Sikhs were common, if not identical, for the various minority groups” (
HRCP, March 2012, p. 89).
“While sectarian violence is a longstanding problem in Pakistan, attacks against ordinary Shia have increased dramatically in recent years, Human Rights Watch said. In 2012, at least 320 members of the Shia population have been killed in targeted attacks. Over 100 have been killed in Balochistan province, the majority from the Hazara community.” (
HRW, 5 September 2012)
“Human Rights Watch has recorded at least 18 sectarian attacks on Shia in 2011.” (
HRW, 3 December 2011)
“Sunni militant groups such as the ostensibly banned Lashkar-e Jhangvi have operated with widespread impunity across Pakistan while law enforcement officials have effectively turned a blind eye on attacks against Shia communities. Some Sunni extremist groups are known to be allies of the Pakistani military, its intelligence agencies, and affiliated paramilitaries, such as the Frontier Corps, Human Rights Watch said. While authorities claim to have arrested dozens of suspects in attacks against Shia since 2008, only a handful have been charged, and no one has been held accountable for these attacks.” (
HRW, 5 September 2012)
“Sunni-dominated Pakistan has seen an unprecedented spike in religious violence this year, with at least 375 minority Shi'ite Muslims killed across the country. […] Official figures indicate that since the start of 2012, at least 134 people have died in sectarian attacks in Baluchistan, mostly in the provincial capital Quetta. Nearly all of those killed were Shi'ite Muslims and a majority of those were members of the Hazara community, a Persian speaking Shi'ite population that emigrated to Pakistan from neighboring Afghanistan more than a century ago.” (
Voice of America, 10 December 2012)
Chronology of events since September 2011
“Authorities say gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims traveling through southwest Pakistan on September 20, killing 26 people. The pilgrims were traveling by bus through Mastung district in Baluchistan province on their way to the Iranian border when the attack occurred. ” (
RFE/RL, 20 September 2011)
“The sectarian group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, has said it was behind Tuesday's gun attacks in western Pakistan in which 29 people were killed. Gunmen stopped a bus and killed 26 Shia pilgrims travelling through Mastung in Balochistan province. They later attacked an ambulance that was carrying people injured in that attack, killing three more people. Pakistan's authorities banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in 2001 for sectarian violence.” (
BBC, 21 September 2011)
“Gunmen attacked a bus carrying Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's insurgency-torn southwest on Tuesday, killing 13 people in the second major sectarian attack to hit the area in two weeks, police said. […] Tuesday's drive-by shooting happened on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas-rich Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan. […] "The death toll has risen to 13. Two of the injured who were in critical condition died in hospital. Now 12 Shiite Muslims and one Pashtun have been killed in the attack," he said after initially putting the death toll at 10. The Shiites were members of Pakistan's minority Hazara ethnic group and had been travelling from the Hazara-dominated town of Hazarganji to Quetta.” (
AFP, 4 October 2011)
“At least 17 people have been killed and some 20 wounded in a bomb attack on a Shia religious procession in the central Pakistani city of Khanpur. Police initially thought the blast had been caused by an electrical fault, but later confirmed it was a bomb. The attack targeted Shias marking the festival of Arbain, one of the main holy days of the Shia calendar. There have been a number of attacks targeting the minority Shia community, carried out by Sunni militants.” (
BBC, 15 January 2012)
„A homemade bomb has exploded near a Shia Muslim procession in the central Pakistani town of Khanpur, killing 18 people and wounding 30, according to police officials.” (
Guardian, 15 January 2012)
“Police in Pakistan's north say at least 18 people traveling on a bus have been killed in an attack by gunmen. Police officials, on condition of anonymity, told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal that those targeted were Shi'a Muslims, a minority in Pakistan, in a suspected sectarian attack by Sunnis. The attack occurred in the mountainous village of Harban Nala in Kohistan district. Reports say the bus was traveling from Rawalpindi, near the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, to the northern town of Gilgit.” (
RFE/RL, 28 February 2012)
“At least seven people have been killed in shootings in Pakistan's Balochistan province, officials say. One shooting killed five when gunmen fired on a vehicle going from Hazara Town on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Quetta, to the city centre. […] No group has said it carried them out. The victims from the first attack are believed to belong to the ethnic Hazara community who are Shia Muslims.”
(BBC, 29 March 2012)
“A suicide bomber on a motorcycle has struck at a market in a Pakistani town close to the Afghan border, killing up to 32 Shia Muslims and wounding more than 60 others, according to officials. Local government administrator Wajid Ali said the attacker detonated a device in the north-western town of Parachinar. Many of the dead were shoppers or stallholders, he said. After the attack, security forces fired at crowds protesting against the bombing, killing three people, said Ali. A local Taliban commander, Fazal Saeed Haqqani, claimed responsibility for the attack in Parachinar, a mostly Shia town. He justified the attack by saying Shias had been attacking Sunnis.” (
Guardian, 18 February 2012)
“At least 14 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in sectarian violence in northern Pakistan on Tuesday, prompting the government to deploy troops and impose a curfew, officials said. The casualties occurred in two separate incidents in the northern towns of Gilgit and Chilas. In Gilgit gunmen opened fire during a strike called by Sunni Islamists over the arrest of one of their leaders for his alleged involvement in a sectarian attack in February that left 18 dead. ‘At least five people were killed and 52 others were wounded,’ Gilgit's deputy administrator Arqam Tariq told AFP. Senior local police official Ali Sher told AFP the gunmen opened fire on a group of Sunnis appealing to people to close their shops in response to the strike call. […] In Chilas, a Sunni-dominated town about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Gilgit, a mob blocked the main Karakoram Highway and killed nine Shiite Muslims, local police official Alam Jan said. ‘The mob took out nine men from buses and shot them dead,’ Jan told AFP.” (
AFP, 3 April 2012)
“Gunmen Sunday shot dead six people including a police official in a suspected sectarian attack in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, police said. The attackers riding on two motorbikes opened fire on people sitting in a shop in Sarki area of Quetta, capital of impoverished Baluchistan province, senior police officer Jahangir Shah told AFP. ‘They entered a welding shop when workers were having their lunch and killed five people,’ he said, adding that the dead included four members of the Shiite Hazara community and one passer-by. […] No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.” (
AFP, 3 June 2012)
“A bomb attack killed at least eight people and wounded more than 20 others outside a Pakistani madrassa in the troubled southwestern city of Quetta on Thursday, police said. The bomb was detonated outside the gates of the Sunni Muslim seminary as a degree ceremony for students was being held inside, police told reporters.” (
AFP, 7 June 2012)
“The death toll from a bomb attack in Pakistan's troubled southwestern city of Quetta rose to 15 on Friday after seven people injured died overnight in hospital, police said. […] A total of 30 people, including students, were wounded in the blast,’ Abdur Rahim Khokhar, a local police official, told AFP. […] There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.” (
AFP, 8 June 2012)
“A bomb planted on a motorbike has killed six bus passengers and injured 40 others in the restive Pakistani province of Balochistan, officials say. The apparent target of the attack was an Iran-bound bus carrying Shia pilgrims. But it went off several minutes too late, correspondents say. The bomb instead hit the wrong target and struck a local passenger bus on the main highway to Iran. […] The latest attack took place near the town of Dreengar in Mastung district, about 40km (25 miles) south of the provincial capital, Quetta.” (
BBC, 11 June 2012)
“At least four students were killed and many injured by a bomb blast which hit a university bus in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, officials say. Police say the bomb was planted on a vehicle parked in a suburb of the provincial capital, Quetta. Passengers on the bus were mostly from the minority Shia Hazara community.” (
BBC, 18 June 2012)
“A bomb hidden on a donkey cart exploded at a Sufi shrine in Peshawar, killing at least three people and wounding more than 20 others. The bomb went off at the Panj Pir shrine on the outskirts of the city. Worshippers had gathered at the site as they traditionally do on Thursday evenings. Local police representative Asif Iqbal said a 5-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl were among the dead. Reports said 11 of the 23 people wounded were also children.” (
RFE/RL, 21 June 2012)
“A powerful remote-controlled car bomb targeting a bus killed at least 11 people including nine Shiite pilgrims in Pakistan's insurgency-torn southwest on Thursday, police said. The incident took place in the Hazar Ganji area on the outskirts of Quetta city, the capital of the oil and gas rich Baluchistan province bordering Iran and Afghanistan. […] ‘The victims included two female pilgrims. ‘It was a remote controlled blast. The bomb was planted in a car and exploded as the bus passed by it,’ he said, adding that more than 20 people were injured in the attack.”
(AFP, 28 June 2012)
“The death toll from the attack rose overnight to 13, including two policemen, who were killed when an explosion hit the bus. The banned Sunni militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, said it carried out the attack.” (
BBC, 29 June 2012)
“A Pakistani mob has taken a man accused of blasphemy from a police station and burnt him to death, police say. The man was being held for allegedly burning a copy of the Koran in public. The incident took place on the outskirts of Bahawalpur, in Punjab province. […] Police said they detained the man after locals complained that he had desecrated the Koran. But before the allegation could be investigated, thousands of angry people surrounded the police station, police said. ‘They were demanding that we kill him in front of them, or they'll take him away and kill him themselves,’ police inspector Ghulam Mohiuddin told the BBC. […] After officers unsuccessfully tried to calm the crowd, it attacked the station, as police tried to disperse it with tear gas. Several policemen were wounded in the violence. […] ‘We were totally outnumbered. There were too many of them and they were hysterical. Eventually, they succeeded in taking him away,’ said one. The man was reportedly beaten and dragged to the spot where he is said to have desecrated the Koran. The mob then poured petrol on him and set him on fire, according to witnesses. Police say they are trying to identify the victim, who was said to be mentally unstable.” (
BBC, 4 July 2012)
“Gunmen dragged 20 Shiite Muslim travellers off a bus and killed them at point blank range in Pakistan on Thursday, the third such incident in six months, officials said. The attack happened in the northwestern district of Mansehra as the bus was travelling between Rawalpindi, the headquarters of the Pakistani army, and the mainly Shiite northern city of Gilgit. Officials said it was ambushed in the hills of Babusar Top, around 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of the capital Islamabad, although they differed over details of the incident. ‘Ten to 12 people wearing army uniform stopped the bus and forced some people off the bus,’ said Khalid Omarzai, administration chief in Mansehra. ‘After checking their papers, they opened fire and at least 20 people are reported to have been killed. This is initial information and the final toll may go up. They are all Shiites,’ he said. Local police official Shafiq Gul told AFP that the gunmen were masked, but said the victims were pulled from three separate vehicles in the district, which neighbours the Swat valley, a former Taliban stronghold. ‘They stopped three vehicles, searched them and picked up people in three batches of five, six and nine and shot them dead. They were all Shiites,’ he said. Mansehra police chief Sher Akbar Khan put the toll at 19, saying the attackers had worn military commando uniforms when they opened fire at around 6.00 am (0100 GMT). […] Separately, gunmen on a motorcycle pulled three Shiites from a rickshaw and shot them dead in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, police said.Nobody immediately claimed the responsibility for the killings which took place at Arbab Karam Khan Road, a middle-class neighbourhood of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, police official Noor Baksh told AFP.” (
AFP, 16 August 2012)
“At least one man has been killed and a dozen injured after a bomb hit a bus carrying Shi'ite Muslims in the city of Karachi. The bus was carrying around 40 Shi'ite students to an annual anti-Israel protest rally in the southern port city.” (
RFE/RL, 17 August 2012)
“Pakistan's president has ordered a report into the arrest of a young Christian girl, reportedly with mental impairments, accused of desecrating pages of the Koran. Police say the girl was arrested last week in a Christian area of the capital, Islamabad, after a furious crowd demanded she be punished. […] Many other Christian families have fled the neighbourhood after unrest erupted. Reports say that police arrested her under pressure from the large crowd.” (
BBC, 19 August 2012)
“On August 30, gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead Zulfiqar Naqvi, a Shia judge, his driver, Essa Khan, and a police bodyguard, Abdul Shakoor, as Naqvi headed to work in Quetta.” (
HRW, 5 September 2012)
“In the most recent violence, in two separate attacks on September 1, 2012, gunmen attacked and killed eight Hazara Shia in Quetta, Balochistan’s capital. In the first attack, witnesses told Human Rights Watch that four armed men riding on two motorbikes shot dead five Hazaras at a bus stop in the Hazar Ganji area of the city. The victims, all vegetable sellers, were returning from the vegetable market. Within two hours of the attack, gunmen riding a motorbike attacked a nearby bus stop, killing two people from the Hazara community. An eighth victim, also a Hazara Shia, died in the hospital on September 2.” (
HRW, 5 September 2012)
“A top police officer investigating sectarian killings in the Pakistani province of Balochistan has been shot dead by gunmen on motorbikes in the provincial capital, Quetta, police say.The car of Superintedent Jamil Kakar was sprayed with bullets as he was leaving his home. His bodyguard was injured.” (BBC, 7 September 2012)
“Gunmen in the Pakistani province of Balochistan have shot dead a senior official of the Geological Survey of Pakistan in an apparent sectarian attack, police say. Mohsin Raza Naqvi, a member of the minority Shia community, was killed outside his office in Quetta.” (
BBC, 26 September 2012)
“Gunmen on motorbikes have shot dead four people from the minority Shia Hazara community in the Pakistani city of Quetta, police say. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which police say bears all the hallmarks of a sectarian attack. All those killed were workers in the city's busy scrap market.” (
BBC, 16 October 2012)
“Four people were reported killed and at least 25 injured by a remote-control bomb that exploded outside a shrine in the city of Nowshera, in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. Police warned that the casualty toll could rise. The area around the shrine was crowded by people celebrating the second day of Eid. Police reported that the bomb had been planted on a bicycle parked outside the main entrance to the Ziarat Kaka Sahib shrine. There has been no claim of responsibility.” (
RFE/RL, 28 October 2012)
“Officials say gunmen have shot dead three Shi'ite Muslims and wounded two others in Pakistan's troubled southwestern province of Balochistan. Officials said the shooting took place on November 12 in the town of Mach, some 70 kilometers southeast of the provincial capital, Quetta. Local police officer Sher Ahmed said the three men from the Shi'ite Hazara community were killed and two others were wounded when gunmen on a motorbike sprayed bullets at two vegetable shops.” (
RFE/RL, 12 November 2012)
“A bomb explosion near a Shiite Muslim place of worship killed at least three people and wounded 14 others in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Sunday, police said. The attack took place just two days after Pakistan beefed up security across the country to prevent sectarian violence between majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites at the start of the Muslim holy month of Muharram.” (
AFP, 18 November 2012)
“A Taliban suicide bomber has struck a Shia Muslim procession near Pakistan's capital, killing 23 people in the latest in a series of bombings targeting the sect during its holiest month of the year. The bomber attacked the procession around midnight on Wednesday in the city of Rawalpindi, next to the capital, Islamabad, said Deeba Shahnaz, a rescue official. At least 62 people were wounded by the blast, including six police officers. Eight of the dead and wounded were children, said Shahnaz. […] Earlier on Wednesday, the Taliban set off two bombs within minutes of each other outside a Shia mosque in the southern city of Karachi, killing at least one person and wounding several others, senior police official Javed Odho said. The Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, said the group was responsible for the attacks in Rawalpindi and Karachi.” (
Guardian, 22 November 2012)
“At least five people have been killed in a blast targeting a Shi’ite Muslim religious procession in northwestern Pakistan. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, confirmed another 17 were injured in the blast on November 25 in Dera Ismail Khan. It came a day after at least seven people were killed in the same city on November 24 in a bomb blast near a Shi’ite gathering.” (
RFE/RL, 25 November 2012)
“At least 19 Shia Muslim pilgrims have been killed by a bomb attack on a bus convoy in southwest Pakistan, local officials say. More than 20 people have been injured in the incident in the Mastung district of Baluchistan province. […] No group has yet said it carried out Sunday's bombing.” (
BBC, 30 December 2012)
Sources: (all links accessed 16 January 2013)
· AFP - Agence France-Presse: 300 killed in Karachi in three months: rights body, 3 April 2012 (published by ReliefWeb) [ID 215631]
http://reliefweb.int/node/487436
· AFP - Agence France-Presse: 740 killed in Karachi in five months: rights body, 5 June 2012 (veröffentlicht von ReliefWeb) [ID 220391]
http://reliefweb.int/node/501529
· AFP - Agence France-Presse: Pakistan blast kills eight, including six Shiites, 28 June 2012 (veröffentlicht von ReliefWeb) [ID 221518]
http://reliefweb.int/node/506937
This featured topic was prepared after researching solely on ecoi.net and within time constraints. It is meant to offer an overview on an issue and is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status, asylum or other form of international protection. Every quotation comes from a document available on ecoi.net and is referred to via an ID-search.
