Pakistan Shia killing US-Wahhabi legacy

“The root causes of religious extremism in Pakistan are traceable to the time when the US government sought to oust Soviet forces from Afghanistan. In those days, the ISI [Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence] was heavily mobilized by the US and funded by the Saudi Wahhabis to achieve this goal,” Ismail Salami.

“No wonder, the only countries that recognized the Taliban with the green light of Washington were Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates,” he said.

Salami took to task the ISI and other “government-funded organizations” for the incessant violence against Shias in Pakistan.

“There is a purported claim that the ISI is not in the least affiliated to the government and that it operates out of its own volition in eliminating the Shia population which forms at least one-fourth of the population,” the academic added.

In the latest anti-Shia violence, more than one hundred people were killed and two-hundred others were wounded in twin suicide attacks in an area dominated by Shia Muslims last Thursday. Outlawed terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Thousands of people have gathered at the site of the multiple bombings, refusing to bury the bodies of 96 of the victims. The protesters say they will not stop unless the army takes over Quetta to protect Shia civilians. They also want the Balochistan provincial government to be dismissed.

The latest violence comes as part of escalating attacks against Shia Muslims in different parts of Pakistan in recent months. Since the beginning of 2012, hundreds of Shias have been killed in the country.

“No matter what labels we use to describe the tragedy, the fact is that what is happening in Pakistan to the Shia minority is an ugly truth, an indelible human stain and an act of genocidal ideology the bitter memory of which will rankle in the minds for many years to come,” Salami concluded.