On November 21, 2024, terrorists opened fire on a passenger convoy in the Kurram District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) killing at least 38 persons and injuring 11. At the time of writing, the death toll had risen to 43. The convoy of around 200 vehicles, carrying Shia passengers between Peshawar and Parachinar, came under heavy gunfire in the densely populated Bagan town. Kurram Deputy Commissioner Javedullah Mehsud disclosed that “two separate convoys of members of the Shia community … were targeted by the terrorists in the Kurram district… both convoys consisted of around 40 vehicles travelling under police escort.”
Soon after the terrorist attack, clashes between Shias and Sunnis erupted in Kurram. “The clashes and convoy attacks on November 21, 22, and 23 have resulted in 82 fatalities and 156 injuries,” said an unnamed local administration official, adding, “Among the deceased 16 were Sunni, while 66 belonged to the Shia community.”
Meanwhile, the worst previous attack targeting civilians was recorded on September 29, 2023, when at least 55 persons were killed while another 100 were injured in a suicide blast targeting a 12th Rabiul Awwal procession near Madina Masjid at Alfalah Road in Mastung town (Mastung District), Balochistan. Mastung Assistant Commissioner Atta-ul-Munim had said that the explosion took place when people were gathering for the procession. The target were people of the Barelvi sub-sect of Sunni Muslims.
Some of the other prominent attacks, each with 25 or more civilian fatalities, in Pakistan since the launch of the operation Zarb-e-Azb [Sword of the Prophet] on June 15, 2014, included:
July 30, 2023: At least 54 people, including a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) local leader, were killed and more than 100 sustained injuries in a suicide blast at the JUI-F workers’ convention on Shanday Morr near the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) office in the Khar town of Bajaur District in KP.
March 4, 2022: At least 57 worshippers lost their lives and 194 were injured when a suicide attacker detonated his explosives inside a Shia Mosque in the Koocha Risaldar area of Peshawar, the provincial capital of KP. Later, the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-KP) claimed the suicide bombing.
November 23, 2018: At least 33 people, including 22 Shias, were killed and more than 51 were injured in a suicide attack in the crowded marketplace near an Imambargah (Shia place of worship) in the Juma Bazar (Friday Market) of Kalaya town in the Lower Orakzai District of KP.
July 13, 2018: A suicide bomber targeting a political rally of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) killed at least 128 people and injured over 200 in the Dringarh village of Mastung District. Both IS-KP and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan ( TTP )’s ‘Ghazi Force Lal Masjid’ wing claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 12, 2017: At least 27 people were killed and 40, including Senate Deputy Chairman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, suffered injuries in a suicide attack on Haideri’s convoy in Mastung town, Mastung District, Balochistan.
February 16, 2017: At least 76 people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked the crowded Sufi shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in the Sehwan Sharif town of Sehwan District in Sindh, injuring up to another 250. The blast took place inside the premises of the shrine as a dhamaal (meditative dance) was taking place, with a large number of women and children among the casualties. Devotees throng the shrine of the revered Sufi saint every Thursday to participate in a dhamaal and prayers. The IS-KP claimed responsibility for the attack.
September 16, 2016: A suicide bomber killed at least 28 people and wounded more than 45 while they attended Friday prayers at a mosque in the Pekhan Killay area of Anbar tehsil (revenue unit) in the then Mohmand Agency of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Jama’at-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a breakaway faction of TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack.
August 8, 2016: At least 70 persons were killed and over 100 were wounded in a suicide bombing at the emergency ward of Quetta’s Civil Hospital, where scores of people had gathered to mourn the death of Balochistan Bar Association (BBA) President Bilal Anwar Kasi in a gun attack earlier in the day. Law enforcement officials said that the two attacks were connected and the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber. Fifty-five of the 70 dead were lawyers, including BBA’s former President Baz Muhammad Kakar, former Supreme Court Bar Association Vice-President Syed Qahir Shah, Advocate Sangat Jamaldani, son of Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) Secretary General Jahanzeb Jamaldani, and Advocate Dawood Lasi, son of Former Federal Minister Abdul Malik Kasi.
March 27, 2016: At least 72 people were killed and more than 300 injured when a suicide bomber ripped through the parking space in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park situated near Allama Iqbal Town in Lahore, Punjab, while Christians were celebrating Easter. JuA claimed responsibility for the attack, with a spokesperson declaring, “We claim responsibility for the attack on Christians as they were celebrating Easter.”
December 29, 2015: At least 26 people were killed and 50 were injured as a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a NADRA office located on the link road in the Mardan town of Mardan District in KP. The explosion ripped through the front entrance of the regional branch of NADRA. JuA claimed responsibility for the attack.
December 13, 2015: At least 25 persons were killed and 62 injured when a device containing about 35 kilograms of explosives ripped through a makeshift market in Parachinar town of Kurram Agency in FATA. Officials disclosed that the device, kept in a sack, exploded when a large number of people were buying second-hand clothes. Two militant groups – Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Alami (LeJ International) and Ansarul Mujahideen (based in South Waziristan Agency) – claimed responsibility for the attack, with one of them (LeJ) asserting that the target was the Shia community.
May 13, 2015: At least 47 Ismaili Shias were killed and another 24 were injured when unidentified militants opened fire in the Safora Chowrangi area near Dow Medical College in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town, Karachi, Sindh.
January 30, 2015: At least 61 Shias were killed and 50 were injured in a bomb explosion at Karbala Maula Imambargah in the Lakhi Dar area of Shikarpur District, Sindh. Jundullah, a splinter group of TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack. Fahad Marwat, Jundullah ‘spokesperson’, declared, “Our target was the Shia community… They are our enemies,”.
December 16, 2014: At least 148 persons, including 132 children, nine school staff members and all seven suicide attackers, were killed when TTP militants stormed and opened fire at the Army Public School located on Warsak Road in the provincial capital, Peshawar. TTP claimed responsibility for the attack, asserting that the attack was in retaliation to military operations in the North Waziristan and Khyber Agencies of FATA.
November 2, 2014: At least 60 people, including children and women, were killed and more than 150 were injured when a suicide bomber detonated his suicide vest in a parking area, about 500 meters from the Wagah Border on the Pakistan side. Giving details about the incident, the then Inspector General Police (IGP) Punjab, Pakistan, Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera, stated, “A large number of people were returning after watching Rangers flag ceremony at Wagah border when a suicide bomber blew himself up near one of the exit gates.”
Of these 17 incidents, nine were sectarian attacks. Since June 15, 2014, in 178 such incidents, at least 762 civilians have been killed, and another 979 have been injured. Such attacks have led to increased animosities between sectarian groups and led to several clashes.
For instance, hours after the November 21, 2024, attack (above), deadly clashes between Shias and Sunnis erupted in Kurram which resulted in at least 39 deaths. The clashes continued till November 23 late night. Though “both sides have agreed to a seven-day ceasefire, during which they will also exchange prisoners and return bodies to one another” as disclosed by Muhammad Ali Saif, spokesperson for the KP Government on November 24, given the fraught ties, particularly over the past few months, between the two sides, the ceasefire is unlikely to last longer. Notably, over 150 have been killed in such clashes in the region over the past five months.
Meanwhile, overall civilian fatalities in terrorist violence have been on a continuous rise since 2020, after declining to 142 in 2019. Fatalities in this category increased to 169 in 2020, 215 in 2021, 229 in 2022 and 386 in 2023. At least 561 civilians have already been killed with over a month still left in 2024, the highest since 2015, when there were 866 such fatalities. Significantly, then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had had declared, in the National Assembly, on June 16, 2014, that Operation Zarb-e-Azb had been launched against terrorism and it would continue till its final objective of the restoration of peace and tranquillity in Pakistan had been obtained. “I am confident the operation will be the harbinger of peace and security for Pakistan,” he asserted.
As SAIR had noted then,
Such vaunting declarations are not a novelty in Pakistan, but are difficult to reconcile with the country’s broader strategic design and continuing exploitation of terrorism as an instrument, both of domestic political management and external strategic projection… In all probability, Operation Zarb-e-Azb will also come to an end sooner rather than later, without any decisive gains. The military may bring away the illusion that the terrorist assault at Karachi has been ‘avenged’, but the capacities and intentions of the terrorists are unlikely to be impacted in any significant measure.
Indeed, Operation Zarb-e-Azb has ended and so have other operations that followed , but terrorism continues to thrive in Pakistan. The hapless citizenry is unlikely to receive any respite in a situation where the Security Forces are themselves under increased threat, with over 636 SF personnel already killed in 2024, the highest in a year since 2013 (665).
