Almost 90 innocent Shia Muslims were killed in a brutal
exploded attack when powerful bomb in a water tanker ripped through a packed
bazaar in Hazara town Quetta, in less then 40 days when another incident of the
same nature had taken lives of almost 100 innocent Hazara people. Hazara people
staged sit in and denied to bury their dead ones until their demands were not
listened. People from all walks of lives condemned attacks on innocent people,
Shia Muslims all over the country staged protests and sit-ins in solidarity
with Hazaras of Quetta.
This scribe learnt that while reporting and commenting on
this tragic incident few media reporters were frequently using the term '
sectarian violence'. This term is very frequently used in our society. I am not
comfortable with this term and in order to explain that ongoing Mass killings
of innocent people can be included in the category of 'genocide of shia Muslims'
and not in 'sectarian violence' let me present definition of sectarian violence
according to some research centers.
According to Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute, sectarian violence traditionally implies a symmetrical confrontation
between two or more non-state actors representing different population groups.
For any reader, anywhere in the world, sectarian violence may mean incidents
involving two or more sects of a religion violently confronting one another. In
Pakistan two main sects of Muslims are living, Shias and Sunnis. Majority is
dominated by Sunnis as Shias are slightly over one fifth of the total
population.
As any news appears that certain number of Shia Muslims were
gunned down or blown up in a suicide attack, in an act of “sectarian violence”,
it pops up to the minds that there must have been a similar attack by Shia
Muslims on the Sunni Muslims prior to this incident. But when one tries to
search in this regard mostly fails to find any incident.
How this could be termed as ' sectarian violence' when a
banned outfit accepts the killings, which consists of few individuals those hardly
represent any majority Sunni groups. By using term sectarian violence, we are
not doing justice with the Sunni Muslims as well, because it hints that they
are supporting killings of Shias which they are not, infect they participate in
the protests in huge numbers along with Shia Muslims.
Considering these facts question comes into mind, why are
those incidents not reported where the Sunni Muslims were the victims and the
Shia Muslims were the alleged perpetrators or they had accepted the blames. It
is hard to find any, just because there were none incidents of this kind. So,
why is all this massacre of Shia Muslims labeled as sectarian violence? As
a matter of fact, there is no sectarian violence going on in Pakistan. It has
never been the mainstream Sunni Muslims who turned against the Shia Muslims and
engaged in their killings. It is not sectarian violence that the Pakistanis are
experiencing. It is “gradual genocide” of Pakistani Shia Muslims being carried
out by a fraction of militants like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who are quite
frequently disowned by majority of Sunni Muslims.
What is genocide? Genocide is "the deliberate and
systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious,
or national group" therefore genocide if continued against shias as
hundreds of Shia professionals like teachers, professors, doctors, surgeons,
intellectuals, businessmen were killed in various target killing attacks across
the country from Peshawar to Karachi, just battle field changes from one city
to another. As part of the Shia genocide, at least 20,000 Shia Muslims
have been killed in Pakistan since 1986. For example, Two days before an eye
specialist Syed Ali Haider along with his 10 years old son was killed by
unknown terrorists, a silent war against shias continued in Pakistan since Zia
regime by militant banned outfits.
Pakistan has never before been in the need of harmony and
unity between the Shia and the Sunni as much as now. Shia clergymen and other
Shia leaders in Pakistan have so far urged their followers to exercise
restraint in order for preventing the real sectarian violence from happening.
Different organizations of Shia Muslims in Pakistan usually keep their
responses to only peaceful protests. This is also a fact that almost all the
Shia Muslims of Pakistan believe in unity, harmony and brotherhood with their
fellow Sunni Muslims. Sunnis also condemn the attacks on innocent Shias but
still some believe they need to echo their voice a bit more because united we
stand and divided we fall, and may we fall as a nation if tragic situation
continued. We all must discourage the term of “sectarian violence” because
instead of objectively describing a reality, the using this term may worsen the
situation as it suggests that both Shia and Sunni Muslims have a share in it
which obviously they do not. 
