Ayesha Siddiqa covered the sudden rise of anti-Shia extremism in Pakistan, in a recent article. In it she gave a short history on the provenance of anti-Shia, Sunni extremism in the country that's worth reading:
Though
the first instance of Sunni-Shia tension erupted around 1951 in Sindh, it built
up more decisively during the 1980s. General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime looked away
while the Anjuman-e-Sipah-e-Sahaba (ASS) took birth in Jhang, South Punjab in
1986. It later turned into the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) that became the
mothership of all Deobandi militancy. It gave birth to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ)
during the early 1990s, and also the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Ansar, and
later Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
During
counter-terrorism operations by Pakistan, segments from the SSP, LeJ and JeM
went into making the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Some members of this
even went on to join Daesh. The SSP was also one of the first organisations to
fight in Afghanistan. Besides militancy, the organisation also engaged in
politics. Its leader, Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, initially contested elections in 1988
from a Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam–Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F) ticket, and later formed
his own party. Around the time Haq was killed in 1990 outside Islamabad,
Pakistan saw a lot of bloodshed, including sectarian violence, through the
decade of the 1980s, 1990s, and the 2000s. Like the evolution of its militant wings,
the SSP’s political face also evolved. One of its current forms is the group
Ahle Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat (ASWJ), which is visible in electoral politics. The SSP
and other militant groups are part of the Deobandi network that comprises
militant outfits, political groups, and welfare institutions.
The
network is so well spread out in the largest province of Punjab that there are
over 20,000 staunch Deobandi voters in every constituency, which makes the
group important for all political parties and builds their influence. The
JUI-F, headed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, is one of the most prominent faces of
the network. It is instrumental in partnering with the Pakistan Peoples Party
(PPP) and spreading the influence of Rehman’s network in Sindh and Baluchistan.
Below is an election poster of anti-Shia faces, with my opinion framing them.
A collection of faces in search of fists. https://t.co/28QzTSi8KF
— TheseLongWars (@TheseLongWars) October 9, 2020
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