EDITORIAL
Implications of the Assaults and Killings of Shias (and other minorities) by Sunni-terrorist groups for the State in Pakistan
In recent months, an unprecedented wave of killings of Shias in Pakistan by terrorist groups who identify themselves as Salafi or Wahabi (extremist Sunni sects) has taken place in Quetta, in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, and in the metropolis of Karachi.
Another horrific act of violence was inflicted on the Christian Community of Joseph Colony, Badami Bagh, in the Ravi Road area of Lahore recently. While these events were occurring, we received the article “Some Notes on the Shia-Sunni Conflict in Pakistan” reproduced below in Item No. 1. In the past, Insaf Bulletin has had a consistent policy of staying away from venturing into discussions of sectarian religious conflict which are generally motivated by and based on faith rather than reason. In discussing within Insaf Bulletin whether to carry this article, some argued it was a reasonable and balanced view of the issue while others felt this article gives us an impression that there is a popular war between Shias and Sunnis, whose origins lie in Islamic history, but which is not the case today in Pakistan where the killings are done by terrorist groups and not by Sunni citizens with the connivance of the police and the administration.
In the end, we decided to reproduce the article for our readers in Item No. 1, followed by an editorial from the Dawn newspaper in Item No. 2 that looks at the issue from a different standpoint of the lackadaisical response of the state. In Item No. 3 we provide an exchange between Feroz Mehdi, Vinod Mubayi, and Arshad Khan which puts forth various views on the significance of this issue for Pakistan and its significance also for India in view of the demonization of Muslims as evidenced in the Gujarat pogrom.
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