Extremism claimed 534 lives in past year: report

February 16, 2012

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Attacks on Sufi shrines in Pakistan constitute a new category of violence against Sufism. Five attacks were recorded in one year-from September 2010 to September 2011-across the country that killed 65 and wounded over 200 devotees, said a report. The report titled ‘Extremism Watch: Mapping Conflict trends in Pakistan 2010-11’, was launched on Thursday by the Jinnah Institute, a think tank. In the report, the institute analysed various types of extremist incidents that occurred in Pakistan over the past year and the effects these incidents had on the Pakistani society. According to the report, 181 incidents of extremism were reported in various parts of Pakistan, causing a total loss of 534 lives and leaving an additional 1391 persons injured. The attacks on shrines include the suicide bombing of the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine in Karachi on October 7, 2010, that killed 9 and wounded 70 devotees; the attack on Baba Farid Ganj Shakkar’s shrine, on October 25, 2010, in which at least seven people were killed and 14 injured when a bomb planted in a motorcycle went off outside the shrine’s gate.
Also included, among others, is the February 2011 attack during the Urs celebration at the Haider Sain shrine in Lahore, which killed two and injured 22.
INTERFAITH CONFLIT: The report stated that 53 cases of interfaith extremism took place over the monitoring period, which included various discriminatory acts against religious minorities, blasphemy allegations leveled against Muslims and non-Muslims alike, as well as violent attacks. Punjab, recorded the highest number of such incidents at 31, followed by 13 in Sindh, 8 in Khyber Pakhtunkwa and one case in Balochistan.
BLASHPHEMY RELATED CASES: 18 blasphemy cases were reported during the year. Eight Muslim men and a teenage boy were accused of blasphemy, out of which, four cases men were killed. The report stated that there was one case in which the police did not register a blasphemy case against a Muslim man. In addition there were four separate cases of Muslim women accused of blasphemy. The blasphemy involving minority groups included two Christian women and a teenage girl. One of the accused women was Aasia Bibi, whose case received international attention. Two Christian men were threatened with violence due to the blasphemy cases, while one was killed. Those killed in blasphemy attack include Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti.
SECTARIAN CONFLICT: Sectarian extremism accounted for 92.6 percent of all the causalities recorded over the monitoring period. The category takes on several forms in the data, including violent attacks against Shias, Shia-Sunni clashes, intra-Sunni violence among the Barelvi and Ahl-e-Hadith groups and violent attacks against the Sunni mosques and congregations.
ATTACKS AGAINST SCHOOLS: The report claimed that 62 attacks against schools were recorded over the monitoring period. The majority of which, caused damage to school infrastructure without the loss of lives. Overall, three people were killed in these attacks, with 61 injured.
In addition, two schools vans were attacked, both in separate incidents in Peshawar , killing five school children, a van driver and wounding 21 individuals including six children and two teachers. In a target killing case in Khar, the Dak Bangla Government Girls Primary School headmistress Zakis Bibi was killed when masked men opened fire on her.
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