Pakistan urged to 'urgently' protect Shiites

By (AFP, September 6, 2012)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/38028/

Quetta, Pakistan - Pakistan should "urgently act" to protect minority Shiite Muslims from rising sectarian attacks by the rival Sunni sect that have killed hundreds this year, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

At least 320 Shiites have been killed in targeted attacks this year across Pakistan, including more than 100 in southwestern Baluchistan province, the majority from the Hazara community, the US-based group it said in a statement.

"Deadly attacks on Shia (Shiite) communities across Pakistan are escalating," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in the same statement.

"The government's persistent failure to apprehend attackers or prosecute the extremist groups organising the attacks suggests that it is indifferent to this carnage," Adams said.

The rights watchdog said Sunni militant groups such as the "ostensibly banned" Lashkar-e Jhangvi (LeJ) had operated with "widespread impunity" across Pakistan while law enforcement officials looked the other way.

LeJ is regarded as Pakistan's most extreme Sunni outfit, accused of killing hundreds of Shiite Muslims after its emergence in the early 1990s. It was banned by then president Pervez Musharraf in 2001.

Adams said the arrest last month of of LeJ leader Malik Ishaq, who has been accused of killing some 70 people, was "an important test for Pakistan's criminal justice system".

Some Sunni extremist groups are known to be "allies" of the Pakistani military, its intelligence agencies, and affiliated paramilitaries, such as the Frontier Corps, HRW said.

On September 1, four gunmen riding two motorbikes intercepted a bus near the Hazarganji area of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, pulled five Shiite vegetable sellers off the vehicle and shot them dead.

On August 30, unidentified gunmen shot dead Shiite Muslim judge Zulfiqar Naqvi along with his driver and police bodyguard.

Sectarian conflict has left thousands of people dead since the late 1980s.

In one of the bloodiest recent attacks, on August 16 gunmen dragged 20 Shiite Muslim travellers off a bus and killed them at point blank range in northern Pakistan.

"Pakistan's government cannot play the role of unconcerned bystander as the Shia across Pakistan are slaughtered," Adams said.