Abstract
For the last three decades or so, Pakistan has been a severe victim of sectarian
violence. Although the roots of sectarian violence in the Pakistani society could be
traced to various political developments in the country and the region, such as, Ziaul-Haq’s Islamization process, Iranian Revolution and the anti-Soviet Afghan war,
during the late 1970s, the dangerous phase of sectarian menace began after the 9/11
incident when the domestic sectarian militant organizations established their links
with international terrorist groups, e.g., Al-Qaeda and then the self-styled Islamic
State (IS), and started playing the role of a facilitator as well as becoming the part of
global Jihadism. Against this background, the paper analyzes the origins of
sectarianism in Pakistan and threats which it poses to the integrity of the country. In
the concluding analysis, the paper argues that the violent extremist ideology that
creates ideologically-motivated committed terrorists may be countered if Pakistan
reorients its strategic policies vis-à-vis its eastern and western neighbors – India and
Afghanistan – by discouraging the use of proxies for pursuing its strategic interests
in the region.
Muhammad Azeem, Naeem Ahmed. (2017) SECTARIAN MILITANCY IN PAKISTAN: ORIGINS AND THREATS TO INTEGRITY, Journal of Social Science and Humanities, Volume 56, Issue 2.
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