Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
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<strong>The</strong> Conflict <strong>With</strong>in<br />
tion had emerged after an investigation showed that Dawood Badani,<br />
a close relative of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Yousuf, was<br />
the prime suspect in the Quetta attacks which had been carried out by<br />
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), the Sunni group closely linked to al-Qaeda<br />
and to former Taliban rulers in Afghanistan. 4 Claiming responsibility,<br />
the group said the attacks were a protest against the Musharraf government,<br />
Iran and the United States. A videotape distributed by the<br />
group showed that the two suicide bombers were madrasa students.<br />
LeJ and other Sunni extremist groups had a history of sectarian violence<br />
in <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>, but those tensions were inflamed by the US military<br />
intervention in Afghanistan and <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>’s support for it.<br />
Sectarian conflict in <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong> took an organized militant form in the<br />
1980s. It had its roots in the so-called <strong>Islam</strong>ization process initiated<br />
by General Zia ul-Haq’s military regime. <strong>The</strong> government’s secular<br />
disposition gave way to a professed determination to <strong>Islam</strong>ize the<br />
society. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Islam</strong>ization of law, education and culture illustrated<br />
the Sunni sectarian bias of the <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>i state. General Zia’s <strong>Islam</strong>ic<br />
penal code was derived entirely from classical Sunni-Hanafi orthodox<br />
sources. <strong>The</strong> official dissemination of a particular brand of <strong>Islam</strong>ic<br />
ideology not only militated against <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>’s sectarian diversity, but<br />
also bred discrimination against non-Muslim minorities. <strong>The</strong> political<br />
use of <strong>Islam</strong> by the state strengthened a clerical elite and created<br />
sectarian groups that aggressively pushed their militant ideas. 5<br />
<strong>The</strong> move towards the establishment of a Sunni-Hanafi state,<br />
reflecting the beliefs of the dominant sect, created a sense of insecurity<br />
among the Shia minority community. <strong>The</strong> dynamic of exclusion and<br />
minoritization, which had existed since the creation of the country in<br />
various forms, was sanctified by General Zia’s <strong>Islam</strong>ization. 6 As a result,<br />
the more orthodox and militant version of Sunni <strong>Islam</strong> had grown in<br />
strength and public influence. <strong>The</strong> promotion of Deobandi orthodoxy<br />
intensified the sectarian conflict. <strong>The</strong> spread of jihadist literature from<br />
Afghan training camps to <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>i madrasas in the 1980s fuelled<br />
radicalism among the students. <strong>Islam</strong>ization of education created<br />
mass sectarian consciousness far beyond the confines of the madrasa,<br />
which resulted in a dramatic shift towards extremist Sunni orthodoxy<br />
and anti-Shia militancy. More extremist Sunni groups demanded a<br />
constitutional amendment to declare Shias a non-Muslim minority and<br />
excommunicate them from the realm of <strong>Islam</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Shia community reacted strongly to the enforcement of the<br />
Hanafi laws by the military regime. Until 1979, <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>i Shias were<br />
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