Iran using attacks against Pakistan’s Shiites politically

Ali Rajab

Iran’s Shiite seminaries have made a scathing criticism of Pakistan after Islamic State militants killed 11 mine workers from the minority Hazara Shiites in the southwestern Balochestan province.

The seminaries said the attack against the workers is tantamount to one against Shiites in Pakistan as a whole.

It will also encourage more attacks against Shiites in the country, the seminaries said.

Shiite cleric Hossein Noori Hamedani denounced the attack, calling on Pakistani authorities and rights groups to take action against attacks targeting the Shiites.

A religious school in the Iranian holy city of Qom also denounced the attack. It called on the Pakistani government to protect Muslims throughout Pakistan and prevent terrorists from attacking them.

It accused some intelligence agencies of standing behind attacks on the Shiites in Pakistan.

Observers say, meanwhile, that ISIS does not attack Shiites only in Pakistan, but Sunnis and minorities too.

Nonetheless, Iran, they add, wants to use the attacks against the Shiites politically, which amounts to collaboration between ISIS and the Islamic Republic’s mullahs.

Some Pakistani experts spotted an Iranian link to the attacks that take place in Pakistan.

Iran has been trying to take root and grow in Pakistan since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

The Islamic Republic has been trying to gain presence in all Pakistani cities since then. It sent representatives to cultural centers in almost all major Pakistani cities for this purpose.