Shia Genocide Events
Lahore, December 10, 1978: Attack on Ashura Procession
Date : December 10, 1978
Location : Lahore
Gender : male ,
Narrative of the Event
Students of Staunch Takfiri anti-Shia Muslim Deobandi cleric Molvi Abdul Shakoor Farooqi revived ‘Tanzeem-i-Ahle-Sunnat (TAS) ‘in Pakistan after partition. The main objective of this sectarian, violent Deobandi organization was to marginalize the Shi’a Muslim community in Pakistan and prevent them from commemorating the martyrs of Karbala in the month of Muharram.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, this violent Takfiri organization drove a campaign against Ashura’s processions and public mourning sittings (Majalis-i-Aza). On 10th Muharram 1399 (December 10, 1978), a charged mob led by goons and terrorists of TAS attacked the main procession of Ashura in Lahore and injured 14 Shi’a Muslim mourners of Imam-i-Hussain (A.S.).
In 1969, Ashura procession was attacked in Jhang. On 26 February 1972, Ashura procession was stone pelted on in Dera Ghazi Khan. In May 1973, the Shia neighbourhood of Gobindgarh in Sheikhupura district was attacked by Deobandi mob. There were troubles in Parachinar and Gilgit too. In 1974, Shia villages were attacked in Gilgit by armed Deobandi men. January 1975 saw several attacks on Shia processions in Karachi, Lahore, Chakwal and Gilgit. In a village Babu Sabu near Lahore, three Shias were killed and many were left injured
On the other hand, Mufti Mahmood (1919–1988), Molana Samiul Haq (1938–2018), Ihsan Illahi Zaheer (1945–1987), and others wrote and spoke furiously against Shias. Molana Samilul Haq wrote in the editorial of Al-Haq magazine:
“We must also remember that Shias consider it their religious duty to harm and eliminate the Ahle-Sunna …. the Shias have always conspired to convert Pakistan to a Shia state … They have been conspiring with our foreign enemies and with the Jews. It was through such conspiracies that the Shias masterminded the separation of East Pakistan and thus satiated their thirst for the blood of the Sunnis“.
Source:
A. Rieck, “The Shias of Pakistan“, pp. 181–184, Oxford University Press (2015).
The Shias of Pakistan: An Assertive and Beleaguered Minority, Book by Andreas Rieck, Hurst Publisher, 2015, Chapter6:The Zia ul-Haqq Era, 1977–1988
Khaled Ahmad, Sectarian War Pakistan’s Sunni-Shia Violence and its links to the Middle East , p. 136, Oxford University Press (2015).
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