The Shia Connection
B. Raman explores the Shia connection in an informative piece
Three terrorists struck again in Karachi in Pakistan on February 22, when they opened fire on some Shias watching a World Cup match outside an Imambargah, a Shia place of worship. Nine people were killed, eight of them Shias, all Kashmiris belonging to Gilgit in the Northern Areas. Subsequently, there were violent disturbances in Gilgit when the bodies of five of them were taken there for burial. To understand the background to this, one has to go into the history of the Northern Areas and the Sunni-Shia divide.
Of the Kashmiri territory occupied by Pakistan in 1947-1948, the Sunni majority areas (4,144 square miles) were constituted by it into a separate administrative unit which Pakistan calls 'Azad Kashmir' ('Free Kashmir') and India calls Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, PoK. The Shia majority areas of Gilgit and Baltistan (29,814 square miles), which were known before 1947 as the Northern Areas of Jammu and Kashmir and which had been given on lease by the pre-1947 ruler of Jammu and Kashmir to the British, were incorporated into Pakistan and are directly ruled from Islamabad.
....To keep the Shias under control, the military-intelligence establishment encouraged the Sunni extremist Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and its militant wing the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to open their branches in Gilgit. This led to the import of sectarian clashes, which frequently take place in Pakistani Punjab and Karachi, into the NA too. To counter the SSP and the LEJ, the Tehrik-e-Jaffria Pakistan, the Shia organisation, and its militant wing the Sipah Mohammad too opened their branches in NA to help the local Shias.
While the SSP and TEJ came into existence in the 1980s, their militant wings came into existence in the 1990s. The SSP was financially assisted by the intelligence agencies of the USA, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the 1980s to counter Teheran's activities in the region. Iran retaliated by assisting the TEJ and the Sipah Mohammad.
Being better trained and armed than the TEJ and Sipah Mohammad and enjoying the official patronage of the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment, the SSP and LEJ went on a rampage not only against the Shias of the NA, but also against those living in Punjab and Karachi, killing hundreds of Shias since the late 1980s.
Embarrassed by this, the intelligence agencies of the US and Saudi Arabia cut off contacts with them, but Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and Iraqi intelligence continued to support them -- each for its own reason. The ISI needed them for keeping the Shias of the NA under control. The Iraqis helped them because they not only targeted the Shias of Pakistan, but also Iranians living/working in Pakistan, including some Iranian military officers undergoing training in Pakistan.
I never knew there was Shia-Sunni angle to the PoK politics.
B. Raman explores the Shia connection in an informative piece
Three terrorists struck again in Karachi in Pakistan on February 22, when they opened fire on some Shias watching a World Cup match outside an Imambargah, a Shia place of worship. Nine people were killed, eight of them Shias, all Kashmiris belonging to Gilgit in the Northern Areas. Subsequently, there were violent disturbances in Gilgit when the bodies of five of them were taken there for burial. To understand the background to this, one has to go into the history of the Northern Areas and the Sunni-Shia divide.
Of the Kashmiri territory occupied by Pakistan in 1947-1948, the Sunni majority areas (4,144 square miles) were constituted by it into a separate administrative unit which Pakistan calls 'Azad Kashmir' ('Free Kashmir') and India calls Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, PoK. The Shia majority areas of Gilgit and Baltistan (29,814 square miles), which were known before 1947 as the Northern Areas of Jammu and Kashmir and which had been given on lease by the pre-1947 ruler of Jammu and Kashmir to the British, were incorporated into Pakistan and are directly ruled from Islamabad.
....To keep the Shias under control, the military-intelligence establishment encouraged the Sunni extremist Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and its militant wing the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to open their branches in Gilgit. This led to the import of sectarian clashes, which frequently take place in Pakistani Punjab and Karachi, into the NA too. To counter the SSP and the LEJ, the Tehrik-e-Jaffria Pakistan, the Shia organisation, and its militant wing the Sipah Mohammad too opened their branches in NA to help the local Shias.
While the SSP and TEJ came into existence in the 1980s, their militant wings came into existence in the 1990s. The SSP was financially assisted by the intelligence agencies of the USA, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the 1980s to counter Teheran's activities in the region. Iran retaliated by assisting the TEJ and the Sipah Mohammad.
Being better trained and armed than the TEJ and Sipah Mohammad and enjoying the official patronage of the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment, the SSP and LEJ went on a rampage not only against the Shias of the NA, but also against those living in Punjab and Karachi, killing hundreds of Shias since the late 1980s.
Embarrassed by this, the intelligence agencies of the US and Saudi Arabia cut off contacts with them, but Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and Iraqi intelligence continued to support them -- each for its own reason. The ISI needed them for keeping the Shias of the NA under control. The Iraqis helped them because they not only targeted the Shias of Pakistan, but also Iranians living/working in Pakistan, including some Iranian military officers undergoing training in Pakistan.
I never knew there was Shia-Sunni angle to the PoK politics.
posted by cyph3rpunk at 2/27/2003 12:20:00 PM
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