Athens, March 14 The Pakistani government has failed to act against abuses by its security and intelligence agencies, while allowing extremists to continue targetting religious minorities. The deadly suicide attack on a Shia mosque in Islamabad last month, killing 36 members of the Shia community leaving another 170 injured, highlighted the ongoing insecurity faced by minority Muslim communities in Pakistan, a report has highlighted.
“I have seen many crime scenes. But this was, very…,” Athens-based 'Directus' quoted a Pakistani police official Shahid Malik as saying, describing the scale of the violence.
Shias, who constitute 10–15 per cent of Pakistan’s population, are not only a religious minority but also subjected to harassment and fatal attacks by the dominant Sunni group.
“Such a terrorist act in the federal capital is not only a serious failure to protect human lives but also raises important questions about the performance of authorities and law enforcement,” said Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri, a Shia leader.
According to the report, Shias, Hazaras, Ahmadiyyas, Ismailis, Dawoodi Bohras, Zikris, and Sufi and Barelvi Muslims face continuous sectarian violence, discriminatory laws, and weak legal protection. The communities and their places of worship are always vulnerable to attacks.
Citing the International Crisis Group, the report said attacks against minority Muslims by Sunni groups have grown in Pakistan due to the government’s failure to restrict civic space that propagates sectarian hatred.
“The state’s failure to prosecute sectarian attacks has created a permissive legal environment. In many instances, government policy has amplified rather than curtailed sectarian rhetoric,” the Belgium-based group said.
Another prominent Islamic minority frequently targetted in Pakistan is the Ahmadiyya community.
Highlighting the October 2025 gunfire attack at an Ahmadiyya mosque in Lahore, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat Canada said, “This heinous act is yet another chapter in the ongoing wave of violence directed against the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Pakistan — a community that continues to suffer in silence under state-sanctioned discrimination and oppression.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also earlier condemned the desecration of Ahmadiyya graves and minarets, as well as the destruction of a historic 100-year-old mosque in Punjab’s Daska.
Ismailis, another minority Muslim sect, have also been targeted by Sunni extremists in Pakistan. A decade ago, at least 43 Ismailis were killed after six attackers opened fire on a bus carrying passengers to Karachi.
“We swear that we will make you and your families cry tears of blood and will not rest until we have cleansed this land of you and established sharia,” the report quoted the pamphlets found at the crime scene as saying.
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