Residents of Pakistan's northwestern Parachinar city, the target of suicide bombings on Friday, have been swept into ongoing sectarian and geopolitical conflicts. Yet, their plight receives scant coverage in local media.
Image: Reuters/F. Aziz
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The death toll from Parachinar's twin bombings on Friday has risen to 67. Scores of people are injured and being treated in hospitals.
Parachinar, the capital of the Kurram district in Pakistan's Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), is a predominantly Shia area that shares border with Afghanistan.
A faction of the sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, known as Al Alami, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was targeting Shia Muslims. In a statement, Al Alami said it had warned Parachinar's Shia community "to stop staining your hands with the blood of Sunnis in Syria." It repeated those demands, saying that "otherwise in the coming days you will face such hate-fueled and deadly attacks that you will not be able to stand them."
Parachinar's Shias deny any involvement in the Syrian conflict, saying it is only an excuse for their "sectarian cleansing" in a strategically important area due to its proximity with Afghanistan.
Protests
Since Saturday, Shia protesters in Parachinar have been staging a sit-in demanding security from the authorities. They blame the government's policies for emboldening Sunni extremist groups that frequently target them.
"It was the fourth major attack in Parachinar this year. In the past, the locals were responsible for their own security and it was very effective as they can identify militant groups. Now the army has taken over and the situation has worsened," Suhan Ali Turi, a Parachinar resident and member of a civil society group, told DW on the phone.
"There is no big sectarian conflict in Parachinar. But the government must act against the 'Islamic State' (IS) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's militants in the area," Turi demanded.
The Pakistani military has assured it will involve locals to improve the security situation in the area.
But the situation in Parachinar is complex due to its geopolitical significance and a large Shia population in a region with an overall strong Sunni influence.
Analyst Aman Memon says that both Sunni and Shia militants have reportedly gone to fight in Syria from Pakistan, and that the Saudi Arabia-Iran proxy war is being fought in many parts of the country, including Parachinar.
"Iranian influence has prompted some Pakistani Shias to join pro-Bashar al-Assad groups in Syria. The Pakistani government is against this movement. At the same time, many Sunni jihadists from Pakistan are fighting against the Assad regime in Syria," Memon told DW.
"It is the Saudi-Iranian rivalry that is creating sectarian problems in Pakistan," Memon added.
Washington-based analyst Farzin Nadimi writes in a piece for The Washington Institute that "as part of its renewed effort to export the Islamic Revolution through armed proxies, Tehran has been recruiting and training Afghan and Pakistani fighters for Syria's battlefields, thereby giving them invaluable experience for potential future campaigns in other regional countries."
Pakistan claims the Parachinar bombers had links with Afghanistan, but some analysts say the South Asian country's policymakers consider the Parachinar Shias a "hindrance" in their pursuit of a "deep state." The term "deep state" is used by security and defense experts to explain Pakistan's alleged efforts to increase its clout in Afghanistan by supporting Sunni jihadists in order to minimize Indian influence in the war-torn country. Islamabad denies it pursues this policy.
Pakistan: A decade of deadly terrorist attacks
Radical groups have killed thousands of people since Pakistan joined the United States and its allies in a war against terror in 2001. Here is a look at some of the major terrorist attacks in Pakistan in the last decade.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Khan
2007 - Twin blasts rock Karachi on former PM’s return
Two bomb blasts struck former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s motorcade on October 18, 2007 in the southern port city of Karachi. Bhutto was returning to Pakistan after almost eight years. The attack left 139 people dead. Bhutto, the first democratically elected female head of an Islamic country, died in an attack two months later, on December 27 in the northern city of Rawalpindi.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/N. Khawer
2008 - Wah bombing
The Wah bombing was a double suicide attack on the Pakistan Ordinance Factories (POF) in Wah on August 21, 2008. At least 64 people died in the attack, which remains to date the deadliest on a military site in Pakistan's history. A spokesman from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Khan
2008 - Insurgents target luxury hotel in the capital
At least 60 people died and over 200 were injured when a truck filled with explosives detonated in front of the Marriot Hotel on September 20, 2008, in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. Five foreign nationals were among the casualties, while another 15 were injured.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O. Matthys
2009 - Peshawar bombing
A car bomb was detonated in Mina Bazar (a market for women and children) in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The bomb killed 125 people and injured more than 200 others. The Pakistani government put the blame on the Taliban, but both Taliban and al-Qaida denied involvement in the attack.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A Majeed
2009 - Market in Lahore targeted
The December 2009 Lahore attacks were a series of two bomb blasts and a shooting which occurred in a crowded market in the country’s second largest city of Lahore on December 7. At least 66 people were killed. Most of the victims were women.
Image: DW/T.Shahzad
2010 - Suicide bomber targets volleyball match
A suicide car bomb killed 101 people at a village volleyball game in the northwestern district of Bannu.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/N. Azam
2010 - Lahore Massacre
The May 2010 Lahore attacks also referred to as the Lahore Massacre occurred on May 28, 2010, during Friday prayers. 82 people were killed in simultaneous attacks against two mosques of the Ahmadi minority. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Image: Getty Images/N. Ijaz
2010 – Bomber targets market in tribal area
A suicide bomber killed 105 people in a busy market in the northwestern tribal district of Mohmand. The suicide bombing occurred on July 9 in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. The target of the attack was believed to be a meeting of tribal elders. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Majeed
2011 - Police training center in Charsadda attacked
A double bombing occurred on May 13, 2011, in Shabqadar Fort in the Charsadda District of northwestern Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Two suicide bombers killed at least 98 people outside the police training center. At least 140 people were injured. The explosions occurred while cadets were getting into buses for a ten day leave after their training course.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/H. Ahmed
2013 - Peshawar church bombing
On September 22, 2013, a twin suicide attack took place at All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan. It was the deadliest attack on the Christian minority in the country, killing 82 people. The TTP-linked Islamist group, Jundalah, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Khan
2014 - Peshawar school massacre
On December 16, 2014, seven gunmen affiliated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) conducted a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The militants opened fire on school staff and children, killing 154 people, including 132 school children. This was the deadliest terrorist attack ever to occur in the country.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/A Majeed
2015 – Gunmen target bus in Karachi
Eight gunmen attacked a bus on May 13, 2015, in Safoora Goth, in Karachi, Pakistan. The shooting left at least 46 people dead. All of the victims were from the Ismaili Shia Muslim minority. Banned militant group Jundallah claimed responsibility for the shooting. Also, pamphlets supporting the Islamic State terrorist group, with whom Jundallah claims allegiance, were found at the crime scene.
Image: STR/AFP/Getty Images
2016 – Lahore park bombing
On March 27, 2016, at least 75 people were killed in a suicide bombing that hit one of the largest parks in Lahore. The attack targeted Christians who were celebrating Easter. Fourteen of the dead were identified as Christians, while the rest were Muslims. The majority of victims were women and children. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a group affiliated with the TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Ali
2016 – Quetta hospital bombing
On August 8, 2016, terrorists targeted the Government Hospital of Quetta in Pakistan with a suicide bombing and shooting that resulted in the death of over 70 People. The fatalities were mainly lawyers who had assembled at the hospital where the body of fellow attorney, Bilal Anwar Kasi, president of the Balochistan Bar Association, was brought after he was shot dead by an unknown gunman.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Khan
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Some security experts also say that the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, which claimed responsibility for the Parachinar blasts, allegedly receives support from units of Pakistan's intelligence agencies. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is also closely connected to the Afghan Taliban and has links to Jundullah, the anti-Iran Sunni militant group.
The tug-of-war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with its most recent manifestation in the Arab countries' boycott of Qatar, is likely to intensify sectarian conflict in Pakistan, a Sunni-majority country with between five to 20 percent Shia population.
Pakistan said it would remain neutral in the Gulf crisis, but many analysts are of the view that it is more inclined towards Riyadh in the Saudi-Iranian regional rivalry.
For Pakistan's Islamic fanatics, the country "is already a 'Sunni Wall' against Shiite Iran," Siegfried O. Wolf, director of research at the Brussels-based South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF), told DW in an interview.
Solidarity with protesters
Despite the seriousness of the conflict in Parachinar, and the bombings that killed scores of people, it is receiving scant coverage in mainstream Pakistani media.
"The Shia community feels increasingly alienated in Pakistan. Since the Parachinar suicide attacks, thousands of Shias have been protesting daily for hours but Pakistani media is deliberately underreporting it," said Sattar Khan, DW's Islamabad correspondent.
#IStandWithParachinar is trending on Pakistani social media, with civil society groups criticizing the "media blackout" of the Parachinar protests.
Ali Chishti, a security and political analyst in Karachi, says that the Pakistani state has failed to protect not just the Shias but most of its citizens. "Pakistan is headed in a completely wrong direction and faces an existential threat due to its policies," Chishti told DW.
Additional reporting by Sattar Khan, DW's Islamabad correspondent.
Pakistan Foreign Policy Adviser Sartaj Aziz on Conflict Zone
