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{{Short description|Major instance of Shia-Sunni sectarian violence in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Use British English Oxford spelling|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = 1988 Gilgit Massacre
| partof = [[Islamization in Pakistan|Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization of Pakistan]]
| image =
| caption =
| map = File:Pakistan - Gilgit-Baltistan - Gilgit.svg
| map_caption = Location of the Gilgit District in Gilgit-Baltistan
| location = [[Gilgit District]], [[Gilgit-Baltistan]], [[Pakistan]]
| coordinates = {{coord|35.8026|N|74.9832|E}}
| target = [[Shia Islam|Shia Muslims]]
| date = 16–18 May 1988<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ispahani |first1=Mahnaz |title=Roads and Rivals: The Political Uses of Access in the Borderlands of Asia |date=2019 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-4591-1 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sehri |first1=Inam |title=Judges and Generals of Pakistan Volume - I |date=2012 |publisher=Grosvenor House Publishing |isbn=978-1-78148-043-4 |language=en}}</ref>
| time = [[Pakistan Standard Time]]
| timezone = [[UTC+5:00]]
| type = [[Death by burning|Immolation]], [[mass shooting]], [[lynching]], [[arson]], [[Mass sexual assault|mass rape]]
| fatalities = 300–700<ref name="Levy Scott-Clarke"/>
| injuries = 100+
| perpetrators = [[Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq]],<br/> General [[Mirza Aslam Beg]],<ref name="Undaunted"/><br/> Brigadier [[Pervez Musharraf]],<ref name="Undaunted"/><ref name="Bansal lesson"/><br/> [[Osama bin Laden]],<ref name="Undaunted"/><br/> [[Special Services Group]] of the [[Pakistan Army]]<ref name="Bansal lesson"/>
| assailants = * [[Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan]]<ref name="Undaunted"/>
* Local tribesmen from [[Chilas]]
*''[[Lascar|Lashkar]]'' ([[Militant|militants]]) from [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] and [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa|North-West Pakistani Tribal Areas]]
| motive = [[Anti-Shi'ism]], [[Sunni]] supremacism
}}

The '''1988 Gilgit massacre''' refers to the state-sponsored mass killing of [[Shia Islam|Shia]] civilians in the [[Gilgit District]] of [[Pakistan]] who revolted against military dictator [[Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq|Zia-ul-Haq]]'s [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] [[Islamism|Islamist]] regime, responsible for vehement persecution of [[Religious Minorities in Pakistan|religious minorities]] as part of its [[Islamization in Pakistan|Islamization program]].<ref name="Undaunted">
{{harvp|Levy & Scott-Clark, Deception|2010|loc=Chapter 13: "Undaunted, Musharraf had in 1988 been called on by General Beg to put down a Shia riot in Gilgit, in the north of Pakistan. Rather than get the Pakistan army bloodied, he inducted a tribal band of Pashtun and Sunni irregulars, many from the SSP [Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan] which had recently put out a contract on Bhutto, led by the mercenary Osama bin Laden (who had been hired by Hamid Gul to do the same four years earlier)."}}
</ref><ref name="Bansal lesson"/><ref name="news sources with quotes">
{{Cite news|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/feb/26raman.htm|title=The Karachi Attack: The Kashmir Link|last=Raman|first=B|date=26 February 2003|work=Rediiff News|quote=A revolt by the Shias of Gilgit was ruthlessly suppressed by the Zia-ul Haq regime in 1988, killing hundreds of Shias. An armed group of tribals from Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province, led by Osama bin Laden, was inducted by the Pakistan Army into Gilgit and adjoining areas to suppress the revolt.|access-date=31 December 2016}}{{pb}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/the-shia-anger/221654|title=The Shia Anger|last=Raman|first=B|date=7 October 2003|work=Outlook|quote=Because they have not forgotten what happened in 1988. Faced with a revolt by the Shias of the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), under occupation by the Pakistan Army, for a separate Shia State called the Karakoram State, the Pakistan Army transported Osama bin Laden's tribal irregulars into Gilgit and let them loose on the Shias. They went around massacring hundreds of Shias – innocent men, women, and children.|access-date=31 December 2016}}{{pb}}{{Cite web |title=The AQ Khan Proliferation Highway - III |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/the-aq-khan-proliferation-highway-iii/261824 |access-date=2020-11-29 |website=Outlook India}}{{pb}}{{Cite web |title=The Forgotten J&K |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/the-forgotten-jk/226392 |access-date=2020-11-29 |website=Outlook India}}</ref>

The massacre was preceded by anti-Shia riots in early May 1988, which were caused by a dispute over the sighting of the moon for [[Eid al-Fitr]] after [[Ramadan]] between [[Shia–Sunni relations|Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims]]. Local Sunnis, who were still fasting for Ramadan, had attacked the local Shias who had announced their commencement of Eid celebrations in [[Gilgit|Gilgit City]], leading to violent clashes between the two [[Sect|sects]].<ref name="Dawn">
{{Cite news |url=http://herald.dawn.com/news/1153556 |title=This Muharram, Gilgit gives peace a chance |last=Shamil |first=Taimur |date=12 October 2016 |work=Herald}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web |url=https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/newsindia/how-pakistan-altered-demography-of-occupied-gilgit-baltistan/ar-BB18AhNJ |title=How Pakistan altered demography of occupied Gilgit-Baltistan |website=[[MSN]]}}
</ref><ref>
{{Cite news |title=The sectarian spectre in Gilgit-Baltistan: Part III |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/216531-The-sectarian-spectre-in-Gilgit-Baltistan-Part-II |access-date=2020-11-29 |newspaper=The News International}}
</ref>
In response to the riots and revolt against Zia-ul-Haq's regime, the [[Pakistan Army]] led an armed group of local Sunni tribals from [[Chilas]], accompanied by [[Osama bin Laden]]-led Sunni militants from [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] as well as Pakistan's [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa|North-West Frontier Province]] into Gilgit City and [[Gilgit District|adjoining areas]] in order to suppress the revolt. It is estimated that anywhere between 150 and 900 Shia Muslims were killed in the resulting massacre and violence, in which entire villages were also burnt down. The massacre also saw the [[Mass sexual assault|mass rape]] of hundreds of Shia Muslim women by Sunni tribesmen.<ref name="Dawn"/><ref>
{{cite book |author1=Daniel Silander |author2=Don Wallace |author3=John Janzekovic |title=International Organizations and The Rise of ISIL: Global Responses to Human Security Threats |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=9781315536088 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYquDAAAQBAJ&dq=osama+bin+laden+gilgit+massacre&pg=PA37 |page=37}}
</ref><ref name="news sources with quotes" />

==Background==
Shia Muslims living in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilgit-Baltistan have allegedly faced discrimination by the Pakistani government since its takeover of the region following the [[Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948|First Kashmir War]] between India and Pakistan in 1947–1948. The Shias claimed that under Pakistani administration, Sunni Muslims enjoyed inherent advantages in all business matters, were unilaterally awarded official positions and treated preferentially in legal cases. On 5 July 1977, [[General officer|General]] [[Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq]] led a coup d'état in Pakistan,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grote |first=Rainer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJBpAgAAQBAJ&dq=1973+constitution+pakistan+islam&pg=PA196 |title=Constitutionalism in Islamic Countries: Between Upheaval and Continuity |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2012 |isbn=9780199910168 |pages=196}}</ref> establishing a military dictatorship, and committed himself throughout his tenure to converting Pakistan into a heavily conservative [[Islamic state]] and enforcing [[Sharia|sharia law]].<ref name="Kepel-10022">{{cite book |last1=Kepel |first1=Gilles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&dq=Nizam-e-Mustafa+sharia&pg=PA100 |title=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam |date=2002 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |edition=2006 |pages=100–101 |isbn=9781845112578 |accessdate=5 December 2014}}</ref> Zia's state-sponsored Islamization increased the sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and between Sunni [[Deobandi|Deobandis]] and [[Barelvi|Barelvis]].<ref name="talbot-251-islamization22">{{cite book |last1=Talbot |first1=Ian |url=https://archive.org/details/pakistanmodernhi00talb |title=Pakistan, a Modern History |date=1998 |publisher=St.Martin's Press |location=NY |page=[https://archive.org/details/pakistanmodernhi00talb/page/251 251] |isbn=9780312216061 |quote=The state sponsored process of Islamisation dramatically increased sectarian divisions not only between Sunni and Shia over the issue of the 1979 ''Zakat'' Ordinance, but also between [[Deobandi]]s and [[Barelvi]]s. |url-access=registration}}</ref> The application of Sunni-centric laws throughout the country was divisive.<ref name=":3" /> Attacks on Shias (as well as other [[Religious Minorities in Pakistan|religious minorities]]) increased exponentially under the dictatorship of Zia-ul-Haq. The country's first major Shia–Sunni riots erupted in 1983 in [[Karachi]], Sindh during the Islamic holy month of [[Muharram]] (which is especially significant for the Shia), and left at least 60 people dead.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Broder |first1=Jonathan |title=Sectarian Strife Threatens Pakistan's Fragile Society |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-11-10-8703240490-story.html |access-date=23 February 2022 |publisher=Chicago Tribune |date=9 November 1987}}</ref> Further Muharram disturbances and riots followed over the course of another three years, spreading to [[Lahore]] and the province of [[Balochistan, Pakistan|Balochistan]]—leaving hundreds more dead. In July 1986, Sunnis and Shias clashed in the northwest town of [[Parachinar]], near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border; many of them were equipped with locally-made automatic rifles. It is estimated that over 200 people died in this event of [[Sectarian violence in Pakistan|sectarian violence]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Broder |first=Jonathan |url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-11-10/news/8703240490_1_shiites-sunni-karachi/2 |title=Sectarian Strife Threatens Pakistan's Fragile Society |date=10 November 1987 |work=Chicago Tribune |access-date=31 December 2016}}</ref>

== Conflict ==
[[File:KKH.png|thumb|right|The [[Karakoram Highway]] was used to transport the assailants from Chilas and Indus Kohistan to Gilgit]]
The first major anti-Shia riots in [[Gilgit District]] broke out in May 1988, stemming from a Shia–Sunni dispute over the sighting of the moon, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of [[Ramadan]] and the beginning of [[Eid al-Fitr]]. When Shia Muslims in [[Gilgit|Gilgit City]] commenced their festivities for Eid, a group of local Sunni Muslims—who were still fasting for Ramadan as their religious leaders had not yet declared the sighting of the moon—attacked them, sparking a series of violent clashes between Gilgiti Sunnis and Shias. Following a period of calm for about four days, the Zia-ul-Haq military regime reportedly sent a contingent of militants from the [[North-West Frontier Province]] and [[Federally Administered Tribal Areas]] of Pakistan, accompanied by additional militants from neighbouring Afghanistan and local Sunni tribesmen from [[Chilas]] to "teach (the Shias) a lesson", which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.<ref name="Dawn"/><ref name="Bansal lesson">
{{harvp|Bansal, In Pursuit of Forced Assimilation|2007|loc=pp. 61–62: 'This was perceived by Pakistani establishment to be an Iranian sponsored 'Shia Revolt'. Zia put a Special Service Group (SSG) group commanded by then Brigadier Pervez Musharraf to suppress the revolt and Musharraf responded by transporting "a large number of Wahabi Pakhtoon tribesmen from the NWFP and Afghanistan" to Gilgit "to teach the Shias a lesson. These tribesmen massacred hundreds of Shias"'}}
</ref>

Shia Muslims in Gilgit District were attacked and killed by a thousands-strong force of Sunni jihadists, led by [[Osama bin Laden]] and backed by the Pakistani military. Shia women living in Gilgit District were also mass-raped by local Sunni tribesmen as well as the bin Laden-led militants.<ref>
{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYquDAAAQBAJ&dq=gilgit+shias+osama+bin+laden&pg=PA37 |title=International Organizations and The Rise of ISIL: Global Responses to Human Security Threats |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=9781315536088 |pages=37–38 |quote=Several hundred Shiite civilians in Gilgit, Pakistan, were massacred in 1988 by Osama Bin Laden and his Taliban fighters (Raman, 2004).}}
</ref><ref>
{{Cite book |last=Murphy |first=Eamon |title=The Making of Terrorism in Pakistan: Historical and Social Roots of Extremism |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=9780415565264 |pages=134 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=19mPVOBZ_9YC&dq=gilgit+shias+raped+1988&pg=PA134 |quote=Shias in the district of Gilgit were assaulted, killed and raped by an invading Sunni Lashkar-armed militia-comprising thousands of jihadis from the Northwest Frontier Province.}}
</ref>

The [[Herald (Pakistan)|''Herald'']], the former monthly magazine publishing of the [[Dawn Media Group]] in [[Karachi]], wrote in its April 1990 issue: <blockquote>In May 1988, low-intensity political rivalry and sectarian tension ignited into full-scale carnage as thousands of armed tribesmen from outside Gilgit district invaded Gilgit along the [[Karakoram Highway]]. Nobody stopped them. They destroyed crops and houses, lynched and burnt people to death in the villages around Gilgit town. The number of dead and injured was in the hundreds. But numbers alone tell nothing of the savagery of the invading hordes and the chilling impact it has left on these peaceful valleys.<ref name="news sources with quotes"/></blockquote>

==Casualties==
The exact casualties figure of the 1988 Gilgit massacre has been disputed. Some sources state that 150 to 400 people were killed while hundreds of others were injured,<ref>
Ambreen Agha, [https://www.newageislam.com/islam-and-sectarianism/ambreen-agha/gilgit-baltistan-murder-most-foul/d/6789 "Gilgit-Baltistan: Murder most Foul"], ''South Asia Intelligence Review'', via ''[[New Age Islam]]'', 5 March 2012;
{{Cite web |title=Gilgit-Baltistan: Murder most Foul |date=6 March 2012 |publisher=Urdu Teehzeeb |url=http://urdutahzeeb.net/articles/blog1.php?p=15659&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140605060046/http://urdutahzeeb.net/articles/blog1.php?p=15659&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 |archive-date=5 June 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown}}
</ref> while other unofficial reports state that around 700 Shias were killed.<ref name="Levy Scott-Clarke">
{{harvp|Levy & Scott-Clark, Deception|2010|loc=Chapter 13: "Bin Laden’s militia mounted a savage pogrom, killing more than 300, and when the fighting had subsided Musharraf opened an office for SSP extremists in Gilgit, helping spread their influence across Pakistan.[8: Some accounts place the deaths at higher than 700. The claim made that Musharraf orchestrated the SSP move to Gilgit was by two of his contemporaries who spoke to the authors in the spring of 2006. The same claim was made in an author interview with Hamid Gul in the same month. B. Raman also made the claim in a paper for the South Asian Analyst Group.]"}}
</ref><ref>
{{citation |last=Bansal |first=Alok |title=Gilgit–Baltistan: The Roots of Political Alienation |journal=Strategic Analysis |volume=32 |number=1 |year=2008 |pages=81–101 |doi=10.1080/09700160801886355|s2cid=144005945 }}: "These tribesmen destroyed property and killed hundreds in the villages in and around Gilgit. According to one estimate, more than 700 people were killed and injured and the brutality of these marauding hordes left an indelible mark in this hitherto peaceful region."
</ref>

==See also==
*[[Destruction of Kashmiri Shias]]
*[[Persecution of minority Muslim groups]]
*[[Sectarian violence among Muslims]]
*[[Anti-Shi'ism]]
*[[Shia–Sunni relations]]
*[[Sunni Islam]]
*[[Shia Islam]]
*[[Freedom of religion in Pakistan]]
*[[Persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan]]
*[[Religious discrimination in Pakistan]]
*[[Sectarian violence in Pakistan]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{citation |last=Bansal |first=Alok |title=In Pursuit of Forced Assimilation: Sectarian and Ethnic Marginalisation in Gilgit-Baltistan |journal=India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs |volume=63 |number=2 |year=2007 |pages=56–80 |doi=10.1177/097492840706300203 |s2cid=153450836 |ref={{sfnref|Bansal, In Pursuit of Forced Assimilation|2007}}}}
* {{citation |last1=Levy |first1=Adrian |last2=Scott-Clark |first2=Catherine |title=Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bvRyTJjiBoAC |year=2010 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-8027-1860-0 |ref={{sfnref|Levy & Scott-Clark, Deception|2010}}}}
* {{citation |last=Singh |first=Priyanka |title=Gilgit Baltistan: Between Hope and Despair |publisher=[[Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses]] |location=New Delhi |date=2013 |isbn=978-93-82169-13-0 |url=https://idsa.in/monograph/GilgitBaltistan_psingh |ref={{sfnref|Priyanka Singh|2013}}}}

{{#seo:
|keywords=Violence against Shia Muslims in Pakistan, 1988 in Pakistan, Massacres in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Massacres committed by Pakistan, Massacres in 1988, Gilgit-Baltistan
|description=
}}

[[Category:Violence against Shia Muslims in Pakistan]]
[[Category:1988 in Pakistan]]
[[Category:Massacres in Pakistan-administered Kashmir]]
[[Category:Massacres committed by Pakistan]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1988]]
[[Category:Gilgit-Baltistan]]

1988 Gilgit massacre - Revision history

MetaBOT at 11:23, 13 July 2023