Haqqani Gang Attacks Pakistani Shiites: 23 Dead

One of the most notorious warlord gangs in South Asia at present, the Haqqani clan, struck Pakistani Shi’a worshippers again, dispatching a motorcyclist suicide attack killing 23 people and wounding 50 others in a town near the Afghan-Pakistani border, according to an Associated Press report.

The perpetrators of the attack were identified as Qaida-led or -inspired, with the motive based on their belief that Shiites “are infidels and that it is permissible or even praiseworthy to kill them. The emergence of those groups in the country over the last 10 years has added to the frequency and viciousness of attacks against Shiites.”

The local governor, Wajid Ali, immediately dispatched “security officials [who] fired on people who took to the streets to protest, killing three of them.” The targets were ordinary civilians milling around and shopping in the market in the northwestern quadrant of the town, named Parachinar.

Fazal Saeed Haqqani took responsibility for the bombing, which detonated in the province of Kurram, home to the highest population of Shi’ites along the border, known as the Durand Line — named after a British envoy early last century, another vestige of colonialism that the local Pashtun population has never recognized.

Tags: Associated Press, Envoy, Fazal Saeed Haqqani, Gang Attacks Pakistani, Kurram, local governor, South Asia, Wajid Ali

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