1988 Gilgit massacre

Background

Shia Muslims living in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilgit-Baltistan have allegedly faced discrimination by the Pakistani government since its takeover of the region following the First Kashmir War between India and Pakistan in 1947–1948. The Shias claimed that under Pakistani administration, Sunni Muslims enjoyed inherent advantages in all business matters, were unilaterally awarded official positions and treated preferentially in legal cases. On 5 July 1977, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq led a coup d'état in Pakistan, establishing a military dictatorship, and committed himself throughout his tenure to converting Pakistan into a heavily conservative Islamic state and enforcing sharia law. Zia's state-sponsored Islamization increased the sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and even between Sunni Deobandis and Barelvis. The application of Sunni-centric laws throughout the country was divisive. Attacks on Shias (as well as other religious minorities) increased exponentially under the rule of Zia-ul-Haq. The country's first major Shia–Sunni riots erupted in 1983 in Karachi, Sindh during the Islamic holy month of Muharram (which is especially significant for the Shia), and left at least 60 people dead. Further Muharram disturbances and riots followed over the course of another three years, spreading to Lahore and the province of Balochistan—leaving hundreds more dead. In July 1986, Sunnis and Shias clashed in the northwest town of Parachinar, near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border; many of them were equipped with locally made automatic rifles. It is estimated that over 200 people died in this event of sectarian violence.

Conflict

The first major anti-Shia riots in Gilgit District broke out in May 1988, stemming from a Shia–Sunni dispute over the sighting of the moon, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid al-Fitr. When Shia Muslims in Gilgit City commenced their festivities for Eid, a group of local Sunni Muslims—who were still fasting for Ramadan as their religious leaders had not yet declared the sighting of the moon—attacked them, sparking a series of violent clashes between Gilgiti Sunnis and Shias. Following a period of calm for about four days, the Zia-ul-Haq military regime reportedly sent a contingent of militants from the North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, accompanied by additional militants from neighbouring Afghanistan and local Sunni tribesmen from Chilas to "teach (the Shias) a lesson", which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.

Shia Muslims in Gilgit District were attacked and killed by a hundreds-strong force of Sunni jihadists, led by Osama bin Laden and backed by the Pakistani military. Shia women living in Gilgit District were also mass-raped by local Sunni tribesmen also the Afghan jihadists.

The Herald, the former monthly magazine publishing of the Dawn Media Group in Karachi, wrote in its April 1990 issue: In May 1988, low-intensity political rivalry and sectarian tension ignited into full-scale carnage as thousands of armed tribesmen from outside Gilgit district invaded Gilgit along the Karakoram Highway. Nobody stopped them. They destroyed crops and houses, lynched and burnt people to death in the villages around Gilgit town. The number of dead and injured was in the hundreds. But numbers alone tell nothing of the savagery of the invading hordes and the chilling impact it has left on these peaceful valleys ... This led to violent clashes between the two sects. In 1988, after a brief calm of nearly four days, the military regime allegedly used certain militants along with local Sunnis to 'teach a lesson' to Shias, which led to hundreds of Shias and Sunnis being killed. Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark in their 2010 book Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons detail the involvement of Pakistan Army generals Mirza Aslam Beg and Pervez Musharraf and the Sunni militant group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan:

Casualties

The exact casualties figure of the 1988 Gilgit massacre has been disputed. Some sources state that 150 to 400 people were killed while hundreds of others were injured, Ambreen Agha, "Gilgit-Baltistan: Murder most Foul", South Asia Intelligence Review, via New Age Islam, 5 March 2012; while other unofficial reports state that around 700 Shias were killed. : "These tribesmen destroyed property and killed hundreds in the villages in and around Gilgit. According to one estimate, more than 700 people were killed and injured and the brutality of these marauding hordes left an indelible mark in this hitherto peaceful region."

References

Bibliography

References

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2. [[B. Raman]]. "The Karachi Attack: The Kashmir Link".
3. {{harvp. Levy & Scott-Clark, Deception. 2010. Musharraf]] had in 1988 been called on by [[Mirza Aslam Beg. General Beg]] to put down a Shia riot in [[Gilgit]], in the north of Pakistan. Rather than get the Pakistan army bloodied, he inducted a tribal band of [[Pashtun]] and Sunni irregulars, many from the SSP [[[Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan]]] which had recently put out a contract on [[Benazir Bhutto. Bhutto]], led by the mercenary [[Osama bin Laden]] (who had been hired by [[Hamid Gul]] to do the same four years earlier)."
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