Daily Times

Nationwide demonstrations and sit-in protests by the members of Hazara Shias community, including other Shias, enveloped various cities and towns of Pakistan for three consecutive days in reaction to the recent massacre of at least 11 coalminers in the Mach area of Balochistan.

Police authorities and an official of the Levies Force Moazzam Ali Jatoi said that initial investigation shows that the attackers identified the miners as being from the Shia Hazara community and the gunmen kidnapped them for execution, leaving others unharmed.

The Islamic State group Daesh-also known as ISIS or ISIL claimed responsibility for the ghastly incident.

In the past, individuals of the Shia ethnic Hazara minority have been targeted by Sunni extremist outfit ISIS in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, leaders of various political and religious parties strongly condemned the killing of 11 innocent coalminers.

In this regard, Prime Minister Imran Khan repeatedly stated that India is backing ISIS in the region-It is unfortunate that terrorists targeted Hazara workers in Balochistan-It is a part of that wider plot hatched by India to destabilise the country and stir sectarian divide. He also praised efforts of Inter-Services-Intelligence (ISI) for foiling a number of terror plots aimed at targeting the religious leaders and creating chaos in the country.

Apart from other top officials who condemned it as a cowardly inhumane act of terrorism, Federal Information Minister Shibli Faraz stated that the shootings in Mach were “condemnable and saddening…Foreign enemies are making constant efforts to destabilise Pakistan.”

Notably, in the past, Pakistan faced various kinds of terrorism-related assaults and sectarian violence by the external hostile elements. In this respect, Balochistan province and especially its Hazara Shia community remained particular target.

Besides other similar dreadful attacks in Balochistan, the deadly suicide attack killed more than 100 persons of the Hazara Shias in Quetta at Kirani Road, Hazara Town, on February 17, 2012. In reaction, Shias conducted nationwide demonstrations and sit-in protests across the country.

Nevertheless, sporadic sectarian violence against these Muslim Shias cannot be seen in isolation, as these are part of the multiple anti-Pakistan designs of the foreign enemies.

It is mentionable that intelligence agencies such as American CIA, Israeli Mossad and Indian RAW were behind sectarian bloodshed in Pakistan, particularly Balochistan. Besides, Pakistan is the only nuclear country in the Islamic World, hence, the US, Israel and India wants to weaken it.

Nonetheless, the US had planned to spark a civil war between the Sunnis and Shias during global war on terror.

In this respect, a study of the Rand Corporation-a leading think tanks, titled ‘US Strategy in the Muslim World After 9/11’ was conducted on behalf of the then US Deputy Chief of Staff for Air Force. The report released on December 27, 2004, which advocated that Sunni-Shia sectarian division should be exploited to promote the US objectives in the Muslim World.

The report was first implemented in Iraq. In this context, CIA also got the services of Mossad and RAW to fuel sectarian violence in Iraq. In 2004, major terror-attacks were carried out against the Shias in Karbala and Baghdad. Afterwards, a chain of Shia-Sunni clashes started between Iraqi Shias and Sunnis, targeting each other’s mosques, religious leaders through bomb blasts, suicide attacks etc.

After Iraq’s experimentation, more lethal pattern of sectarian conflict had been conducted in Pakistan. While in Balochistan sectarian assaults on Shias, particularly on Hazaras kept on going to fuel sectarian riots in the province.

In this connection, some banned religious outfits like Lashkar-i-Janghvi and the Sunni militant group, Jundollah (God’s soldiers) which claimed responsibility for a number of terror attacks on Shias, especially of Hazara community in Balochistan, get arms and ammunition from RAW and CIA. These foreign-assisted militants groups were also behind target killing of many Sunni and Shia leaders, political figures, bomb blasts, target-killings to achieve the clandestine aims of the US, India and Israel.

Jundollah also carried out many subversive acts in Iranian Sistan-Baluchistan. In this respect, Tehran had directly accused CIA of funding these types of terror attacks.

Hinting towards America, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei had disclosed, “The bloody actions being committed in Iraq, Pakistan and Iran are aimed at creating a division between the Shias and Sunnis…those who carry out these terrorist actions are directly or indirectly foreign agents.”

In its latest report, titled “Indian Chronicles”, the EU DisinfoLab, published on December 9, last year, exposed an Indian disinformation network of fake news on social media, operating since 2005 to discredit nations, particularly Pakistan. It aims to reinforce pro-Indian and anti-Pakistan and anti-Chinese feelings.

And Pakistan’s Armed Forces, particularly Army have successfully broken the backbone of the foreign-supported terrorists by the military operations, while ISI has broken the network of these terrorist groups.

In the recent past, some terror attacks were carried out in Karachi, Ghotki and Larkana in Sindh, and Balocistan, Waziristan and Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province-country’s some other areas, leaving several people, including some personnel of the security forces dead and a dozen injured.

In this context, the UN report of July 26, 2020 disclosed: “The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and its splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar continue to target Pakistan from their bases in Afghanistan…the significant presence of ISIL-K (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Khorasan) in Afghanistan”, which the UN warns “now pursues a global agenda.”

In fact, killing of Hazara Shias is part of the strategic game of US, Israel and particularly India to create unrest in Balochistan which is central point of the CPEC. Their secret agencies are destabilizing Pakistan and want to damage the CPEC project which is part of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative or BRI. Washington and New Delhi have already opposed this project.

At this critical moment, Pakistan’s religious scholars, especially those of Sunni-Shia sects, including media, must create selfless unity among various factions to thwart the sinister designs of those foreign powers which are attempting to create anarchy in the country through sectarian terror-attacks, as noted, recently, on the Hazara Shias.