Alwaght- Since the 1980s and with the rise of foreign-backed terrorists in the region, Shiites in various countries have been subjected to surging waves of violence. Pakistan is one of the countries where this crisis has extensively appeared and multiple armed groups and continuous instability have made this country a dangerous place for the Shiite Muslims. Over the past four decades, several Shiites have lost their lives in takfiri attacks and many other were injured or displaced.
In the latest act of terror in Pakistan, a suicide bomber struck a Shiite mosque in the capital Islamabad on Friday, killing 36 worshippers and wounding dozens more. The blast tore through the Khadija al-Kubra Mosque in the city’s Tarlai area.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar confirmed the attack was a suicide bombing. An affiliate of ISIS terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the blast.
In response, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry announced the arrest of four suspects linked to the bombing during security operations in Peshawar and Nowshera within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The ministry asserted that evidence clearly indicates ISIS operatives based in Afghanistan planned, trained, and directed the attack.
This attack underscores the persistent targeting of Pakistan’s Shiite community by extremist groups and the continued fragility of their security. The pattern reveals a deliberate strategy by militants to focus on Shiites, aiming to fuel sectarian strife and broader instability across the nation.
This attack is but one recent example in a decades-long campaign of lethal violence against Pakistani Shiites. Authorities have recorded scores of similar assaults over the years, claiming the lives of thousands.
Terrorist attacks on the Shiites in the 1980s and 1990s
In 1988, a terrorist attack was carried out targeting Shiites of Gilgit, killing at least 150 and injuring 100. The attack, launched by Sepah-e-Sahaba militant group marked one of first mass killings of Shiites in Pakistan following ethno-religious disputes.
The campaign of violence against Shiite Muslims in Pakistan continued throughout the 1990s, escalating sharply with the emergence of the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) in 1996. The group publicly declared its ggoal which was the “cleansing” of Shiites from Pakistan.
This declaration unleashed a wave of targeted assassinations and brutal attacks. The period of 1998-1999 saw a particularly grim series of massacres and killings in Karachi and other regions. Shiite professionals, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens became specific targets. Sectarian violence during this time became a daily reality, with reported statistics indicating that hundreds fell victim to these terrorist assaults.
Heightened crimes against Shiites in the third millennium
With the dawn of the third millennium, sectarian assassinations and bombings targeting Pakistan’s Shiite population rose sharply. Between 2001 and 2004, hundreds of Shiite worshippers, gatherings, and religious sites came under attack by extremist groups such as Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
One of the deadliest attacks of this period occurred on July 4, 2003, when a Shiite Hazara mosque in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, was targeted. A suicide bombing followed by gunfire killed more than 53 people and wounded dozens. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group known for its explicit campaign against the Hazara Shiite community, carried out the attack.
In 2006 and 2007, a series of bombings and assaults on Shiite gatherings were reported in Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore. These attacks claimed the lives of many Shiites and sparked widespread concern over the community’s security.
Violence escalated further during the 2010s, both in intensity and geographic scope. Extremist groups including Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Jundallah, and ISIS-linked factions played a decisive role in this wave of sectarian violence.
On April 16, 2010, militants from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi carried out a bombing at a hospital in Quetta, followed by a shooting attack, killing 12 Hazara Shiites and injuring 47 others.
On May 6, 2011, terrorists opened fire on a Shiite gathering in Quetta, killing eight people and wounding 15 more. The targeting of Hazara neighborhoods marked the first wave of a series of heavy attacks against the community. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the assault.
On September 20, 2011, armed militants attacked a bus carrying Hazara Shiites in Quetta, killing at least 26 passengers and injuring six others. The massacre triggered nationwide protests across Pakistan, with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claiming responsibility.
In 2012, reports documented a surge in targeted killings by terrorists against Shiite activists, intellectuals, and civilians across the country. According to available figures, more than 450 Shiites were killed in Pakistan that year alone.
One of the most brutal incidents occurred on February 28, 2012, in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. Militants from the group Jundallah stopped several buses, separated Shiite passengers, and executed 18 people, among them three children, on the roadside. The sectarian massacre provoked widespread outrage within the Shiite community.
In August 2012, another attack unfolded in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, where Shiite passengers were forcibly removed from buses and summarily killed in a gun attack. The incident marked yet another systematic assault on Shiites in northern Pakistan.
On January 10, 2013, a series of coordinated bombings rocked Quetta, killing 130 Shiites and injuring another 270. Terrorist groups operating under the banners of the Baloch United Army and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi carried out the attacks.
On May 13, 2015, Jundallah militants opened fire on a bus carrying Ismaili Shiite passengers in Karachi, killing 45 people and wounding dozens more.
Shiite religious rituals also came under attack. On October 23, 2015, a bombing during an Ashura procession in the city of Jacobabad, in Sindh province, killed 23 people and injured several others. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the attack.
On March 31, 2017, a bomb exploded in a market in Parachinar, killing at least 24 people and injuring 70 others. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar was identified as the group behind the attack.
On April 12, 2019, an explosion struck a Hazara market in Quetta, killing 16 people and wounding 30 others.
Sectarian violence and terrorist attacks against Shiites continued into the 2020s, in some years intensifying further.
On March 4, 2022, ISIS’s Khorasan Province carried out a suicide bombing at a mosque in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing 63 people and injuring 196 others.
On November 21, 2024, a large convoy of vehicles carrying Shiites was ambushed in the Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Heavy gunfire left at least 54 people dead and more than 86 wounded. The attack ranked among the deadliest incidents of sectarian violence in northwestern Pakistan in recent years, with ISIS identified as the prime suspect. Around the same time, a similar ambush in Parachinar killed at least 42 Shiites.
Over the past three decades, terrorist attacks against Pakistan’s Shiite population have risen steadily and alarmingly, evolving into one of the country’s deepest security and social crises. Organized extremist groups—particularly takfiri networks—have deliberately targeted mosques, religious ceremonies, convoys, and Shiite-populated areas in an effort to spread fear and instability nationwide. An examination of these attacks shows that they have expanded not only in number but also in lethality, geographic reach, and operational sophistication year after year.
These actions are not simply sporadic attacks, but indicate a well-calculated strategy to fan flames of sectarian conflicts and undermine social coexistence in Pakistan. The main goal of these groups is destabilizing the country, undermining the government, and drawing a gap between various sects and religions to advance their ideological and political agenda under the shadow of insecurity.
