Shiites in Pakistan commemorating the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, were attacked on MA Jinnah Road in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi. The attack took place on the very day of the Islamic calendar (called Ashura) when Imam Hussein was killed in 680 AD by the violent extremists. 30 are reported dead and numerous others injured. Just a few days earlier, the extremists killed five and injured 60 in an attack on Shiites in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Source: BBC
The attack is part of the Sunni extremists violent campaign against the Shiites in Pakistan and other parts of the Muslim world that has left thousands dead amongst the Shiite minority. The emergence of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban has further strengthened the sectarian violence perpetrated by the hard-line Sunni extremists.
In Pakistan the financial and ideological support for the Sunni extremist comes from Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam and other clerics of the Deobandi school of thought. The clerics in Saudi Arabia, however, are the prime motivators and financiers of the extremists now active in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
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