Slav Defence
THINK TANK VICE CHAIRMAN: ANALYST
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2010
- Messages
- 7,574
- Reaction score
- 117
- Country
- Location
QILA BHATTIAN WALA: In the village of Qila Bhattian Wala, nestled in wheat fields, Shia Muslims know nothing of the record levels of violence suffered by their community elsewhere in Pakistan.
Here 3,000 villagers live in harmony with their Sunni neighbours. They worship at the same mosque, guard each others’ religious processions, grow up together, intermarry and live in peace without fear or retribution.
“I’ve witnessed this Shia-Sunni brotherhood from my childhood, you can say from the day I was born,” Mohammad Bashir, an 80-year-old farmer told AFP in the village, 130 miles (208 kilometres) southeast of the capital Islamabad.
“We are all Muslims and creatures of one Allah,” he added.
On Friday afternoons, Shia and Sunni clerics perform the call to prayer from the same, small mosque with marble flooring. One after the other, Shias and Sunnis make their ablutions and enter the mosque to worship.
“Islam is a religion of peace, so we never say a word in our sermons which can create trouble for others,” said Maulana Zille Hasnain, a Shia prayer leader.
But in parts of Pakistan, that is no longer the case.
A devastating twin suicide attack killed 92 people in the Shia Hazara neighbourhood of Alamdar Road in the southwestern city of Quetta on Thursday.
It was the worst single attack on Shias in Pakistan and came after what Human Rights Watch (HRW) said was the deadliest year on record for the country’s Shias, with more than 400 people killed in 2012, mostly in drive-by shootings.
Activists accuse the government of failing to protect Shias, who account for 20 percent of the 180 million population, and say the perpetrators operate with impunity because the judiciary fails to prosecute the culprits.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source>>Dawn
Here 3,000 villagers live in harmony with their Sunni neighbours. They worship at the same mosque, guard each others’ religious processions, grow up together, intermarry and live in peace without fear or retribution.
“I’ve witnessed this Shia-Sunni brotherhood from my childhood, you can say from the day I was born,” Mohammad Bashir, an 80-year-old farmer told AFP in the village, 130 miles (208 kilometres) southeast of the capital Islamabad.
“We are all Muslims and creatures of one Allah,” he added.
On Friday afternoons, Shia and Sunni clerics perform the call to prayer from the same, small mosque with marble flooring. One after the other, Shias and Sunnis make their ablutions and enter the mosque to worship.
“Islam is a religion of peace, so we never say a word in our sermons which can create trouble for others,” said Maulana Zille Hasnain, a Shia prayer leader.
But in parts of Pakistan, that is no longer the case.
A devastating twin suicide attack killed 92 people in the Shia Hazara neighbourhood of Alamdar Road in the southwestern city of Quetta on Thursday.
It was the worst single attack on Shias in Pakistan and came after what Human Rights Watch (HRW) said was the deadliest year on record for the country’s Shias, with more than 400 people killed in 2012, mostly in drive-by shootings.
Activists accuse the government of failing to protect Shias, who account for 20 percent of the 180 million population, and say the perpetrators operate with impunity because the judiciary fails to prosecute the culprits.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source>>Dawn
