Title: The Shia-Sunni
Conflict In Pakistan
Author: Yoginder Sikand
Publication: The Weekend
observer
Date: March 25, 2000
In recent years, Pakistan
has been witness to a remarkable upsurge of sectarian violence between
Sunnis, who account for some 75 per cent of its population, and its Shia
minority. Wild blood-letting has caused the killings of many hundreds of
people, with several senior religious figures having been killed, and bombs
going off in mosques at prayer time, resulting in tragic loss of life.
Many Pakistanis discern
a foreign hand in these developments, and some have even accused the Indian
intelligence agencies of attempting to foment Shia-Sunni strife in the
country.
However, it appears that
the roots of the present spate of killings are more deeply embedded than
that.
The eleven year reign
of Zia ul Haque saw a dramatic mushrooming of Islamist parties and-madrasas
all over Pakistan.
Zia attempted to cultivate
the religious lobby as part of his Afghan policy as well as to attempt
to build up a strong bloc against India.
Large sums of money and
armaments began to pour into Pakistan from the USA, Saudi Arabia and Iran
as well as private sources in the name of the Afghan jihad.
Only a fraction of the
aid reached the Afghans. A large part of it went into the hands of locals,
triggering off a veritable I gun-culture' that first manifested itself
in street fighting in Karachi and then in the form of Sunni-Shia battles,
particularly in the Punjab.
The Afghan war bred large
hordes of Pakistanis trained in the use of sophisticated weaponry, and
with the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Kabul, they were left with, literally,
nothing to do.
Their jihadist passions
needed an outlet, and they began training their sights to newer pastures.
Some of them headed for
Bosnia and later Chechenya, others to Tajikistan, Sinkiang and especially
Kashmir. Yet others took up the gun to wage war against sectarian enemies
within Pakistan itself in the name of establishing an Islamic system in
the country.
Many of these jihadists
were the products of the large number of Islamic madrasas that had mushroomed
in Zia's years, especially in Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab.
The sudden spurt in the
number of madrasas must be related to the collapse of the state education
system, and the lavish patronising of the mullahs by the Zia regime.
The vast majority of
the madrasa students came from poor families, attracted by the free education
provided therein.
According to a report
titled 'Role of Dini Madars [Madrasas] in Fanning Sectarianism in Punjab',
from 1947, when Pakistan was established, to 1975, only 868 madrasas were
set up in Punjab, while in Zia's time, from 1976 to 1985 the number of
new madrasas was 1644.
Zia carefully cultivated
the madrasas as a strong support of his illegitimate regime. In 1979, he
passed a law making maulvis responsible for distributing zakat funds to
the poor.
In rural areas, the maulvis
were appointed as collectors of the ushr tax. Thus, the maulvis were given
a new sense of legitimacy and positions of power.
This was also reflected
in the rise in the number of maulvis elected to the provincial assemblies.
As the power of the mullah
lobby increased, they began setting about trying to impose their own agendas.
Large sums of money began pouring in from Saudi Arabia to set up Sunni
madrasas preaching a particularly puritanical Wahhabi form of Islam that
was fiercely opposed to the Shias as well as the Sufis.
Saudi funding seems to
have been Principally motivated by a desire to counter Iranian-style radicalism
in the region. On the other hand, not to be left out, the Iranians began
sponsoring Shia madrasas in various parts of the country.
This, naturally, gave
rise to increasing Sunni-Shia tensions. To add to this was the fact of
the sudden increase in the number of madrasa products, whom the economy
could not absorb into productive occupations.
It was estimated that
in the mid-1990s, there were over two lakh students in various madrasas
in Punjab. Only a small fraction of these would be able to get jobs, and
for many of the rest, militant sectarian outfits provided a source of income
and an outlet for their anger and frustrations.
The report on the role
of the Punjabi madrasas in fanning Shia-Sunni violence warns that, 'Violent
sectarianism is damaging the very fabric of society and is becoming a potent
threat to the very existence of the country'. It goes on to say that there
has been a definite change in the pattern of Shia-Sunni conflict in recent
years.
While earlier it was
sporadic, unplanned and generally occurred on the occasion of Muharram,
now it has taken the form of planned, selective and systematic killings
accompanied by attacks on religious shrines like mosques and imambaras.