Shia IDPs Fearful of Being Targeted, IRIN News, 11 February 2010
EXCERPT: "Shias displaced from Orakzai Agency near the Pakistan-Afghan border and now living with hosts in Hangu and Kohat districts, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), say they feel unprotected and vulnerable living alongside other internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are predominantly Sunni. 'We are terrified. The fact is that most of the IDPs here belong to the majority Sunni tribes. Generally we Shias try to keep a low profile by staying indoors with close relatives so we cannot be identified,' said Miran Shah Khan, a 30-year-old IDP from Orakzai tribal area. He said he had instructed his three children to stay 'inside all the time'... The Kohat local authorities have reported the presence of some 3,300 Shiite IDP families in the district. Of these, only around 1,300 have been registered - due largely to the fact that the registration points are in Sunni-populated areas where minority Shiite IDPs are reluctant to go. Orakzai Agency, one of seven tribal agencies along the Pakistan-Afghan border, has a population of around 450,000, of whom around 8 percent are Shia, according to official data. Orakzai has recently seen sectarian tensions, with Shias being targeted. Local Taliban militants are believed to be behind the attacks, a spill-over from sectarian clashes in neighbouring Kurram Agency, where 40 percent of the 500,000 population is Shia."
Read the full story.
Related articles:
Conservative Sunni activism reemerges in heart of Pakistan, The Washington Post, 11 February 2010
Pakistan's dangerous divisions, The Guardian, 11 February 2010
The great divide, New Statesman, 11 February 2010
Related reports:
Shiite-Sunni strife paralyzes life in Pakistan's Kurram Tribal Agency, The Jamestown Foundation // Terrorism Monitor, 30 April 2008
Related posts:
Karachi bomb blasts kill Shiite worshipers, 5 February 2010
Displacement crisis far from over: UN, 7 January 2010
Returning IDPs face challenges despite aid, 9 December 2009
2009 Department of State report on religious freedoms in Pakistan, 16 November 2009
IDP hosts increasingly wary on undercover militants, 30 October 2009
