Pakistan: 40 Die in Sunni-Shiite Clashes

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Pakistan: 40 Die in Sunni-Shiite Clashes


Saturday April 7, 2007 5:46 PM

By RIAZ KHAN

Associated Press Writer

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Gunbattles between majority Sunnis and minority Shiites
left at least 40 people dead and 43 wounded in remote northwestern Pakistan after
men opened fire on Shiite Muslims, a Pakistani official said Saturday.

Arbab Mohammed Arif Khan, secretary for law and order in Pakistan's semiautonomous
tribal regions, said authorities had imposed a round-the-clock curfew to control the
situation in Parachinar in North West Frontier province bordering Afghanistan.

-snip-

The trouble began Friday when gunmen began shooting at Shiites near their mosque,
according to Gul Jan, a local resident.

Some of the Shiites blamed rival Sunni Muslims and began burning Sunni-owned shops
and homes, local Sunni leader Shirin Mengal said in Peshawar, capital of the province
where the clashes occurred. Mengal claimed that about 400 homes and shops of Sunni
Muslims had been burned by Shiites.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6540058,00.html

[bemildred]

1. Oh good, it's spreading. nt

[Igel]

3. Well, this was an especially bad episode.

But I remember reading about things like this in 2002 and from time to time since then. Every six months or so there's some huge Shi'a-Sunni wrangle: some slight gets taken as a dishonor to be avenged, and since so much is communal both the response (and the inevitable counter-response) is usually over-sized and aimed at innocent people.

Pakistan's a fun country to watch. And I mean that in the most sarcastic way possible.

(on edit: I can't believe I misspelled 'huge'. Yikes.)

[bemildred]

4. True.

Just amusing myself. One could argue that the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have actually quieted things down, in this particular regard, by providing a distraction.

[bemildred]

2. Sectarian riots erupt in Pakistan

About 40 people have been killed and more than 70 injured in violent clashes between Sunni and Shia Muslims in northern Pakistan.

The town of Parachinar was placed under curfew on Friday as troops were deployed to restore order.

Officials said the soldiers had been given the order to shoot-on-sight in an attempt to control the violence.

"So far we have received reports that 40 people have been killed in clashes in two days of fighting between two religious groups in Parachinar," Arif Habib, a local security official, said on Saturday.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E796A05A-4C7E-4F4A-9ED2-86BDDB7DE2EF.htm

[bemildred]

5. Pakistan: Trouble in the mosque

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Last Friday, the chief cleric of Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Aziz, announced the setting up of a Taliban-style vigilante Islamic court and vowed suicide-bomb attacks if the authorities tried to crack down on the mosque and its followers.

Also on Friday, Aziz's brother, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed, gave the government a month either to follow sharia law or see it enforced through the mosque's parallel system.

Already, girls from the Jamia Hafsa, backed by their male counterparts from Jamia Fareedia, another religious institution administered by the Lal Masjid, have been roving through Islamabad, asking music- and video-shop owners to close down their businesses. "Vice and virtue" squads urge women to adopt the Islamic dress code.

The mosque compound has taken on the form of a rebel camp, with young men armed with sticks posted at the gates and at lookout points along banner-strewn walls. More than 10,000 students are affiliated with the mosque's two madrassas.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ID12Df03.html

[ohio2007]

6. Musharraf's chances of political survival are decreasing

By Mohamed Nawab Bin Mohamed Osman for RSIS (10/04/07)

The recent decision by President Pervez Musharraf to remove chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had sparked major protests and plunged Pakistan into one of the most bitter political rows since he came to power in 1999. From RSIS.



The opposition led by Pakistani Islamists has utilized the row to further their own agenda of attempting to over-throwing the military regime.

The question is now whether Musharraf will survive this current episode and how this will impact upon Pakistani politics. While it is not likely that this current episode will result in the immediate departure of Musharraf from Pakistani politics, his position has been significantly weakened and it may lead to his eventual removal from power.
Three major issues are currently acting against Musharraf: Pakistani domestic politics; the failure of Musharraf's "enlightened moderation" with regard to Islam in Pakistan; and waning support of the US.

<snip>

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=17466