Historical Background and Causes of Sectarianism in Giglit Baltistan
Abstract
Gilgit–Baltistan (GB) is a Shia-dominated province within a Sunni-majority country, having a cluster composition of diversified religious identities including the segments of Shia, Sunni, Noorbakhshi, and Ismailia populations respectively. It is located between the disputed regions of India and Pakistan and is a sensitive region to sectarian violence. Gilgit–Baltistan (GB) has always remained in the headlines of the news not because of its natural and scenic beauty landscapes, but because of sectarian unrest. Tension and a sense of fear prevailing across the region on the rise of the inflammatory statements made from both communities’ lives in Gilgit Baltistan. . Before 1970, the region had no such eruptions and escalation of sectarian violence, all the ethnic and religious diversity segments had the sentiments, and cooperation, and lived in the coexistence with the amicable environment of brotherhood. The outbreak began to be executed with the development of the Karakoram Highway, the major transformative policies adopted by the regime of General Zia ul Haq, and foreign forces contributed their role to initiating the sectarian conflict in the 1980s In Gilgit Baltistan. The formulation of anti-Shia discourse and imposition of Sunni doctrine in propagating communal violence by neglecting the Shia segments, by having support from foreign powers such as Saudi Arabia, and the unneeded series of Afghanistan Jiddad all these have contributed their role in making the outbreak of sectarian conflict in Gilgit Baltistan.
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