Pakistan
On August 29th Syed Ameer Hyder Shah, advocate of the Sindh High Court was shot and killed in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of Karachi. Shah was travelling in his car when three men riding motorcycles opened fire on his car as it neared Hassan Square. The assailants immediately left the scene and they have yet to be identified or apprehended. Shah would sustain critical gunshot wounds and would be pronounced dead later at the hospital.
In a separate incident, Aftab Ahmed was shot and killed by armed gunmen near the North Nazimabad area of Karachi. Ahmen was travelling in his car on the evening to August 29th when the armed gunmen pulled up next to him in their motorcycles and opened fire. After sustaining multiple gunshot wounds, Ahmed was pronounced dead at the hospital.
On September 5th a recent convert to Shia Islam and his brother were gunned down by militants in the Khyber Pakhtunhwa province. Riaz Alvi would begin receiving death threats from Wahhabi terrorist groups shortly after his conversion to Shia Islam. Despite the availability of information of this event, the Pakistani authorities have done little to investigate the matter.
Shia Rights Watch condemns these violent attacks of terrorism and calls on the Pakistani government to investigate these attacks and the remaining unsolved crimes against Shia Muslims throughout the country.
Iraq
On August 31st ISIS released a new video online of them burning four Iraqi Shia fighters alive. The video shows four Shia men who are believed to be a part of the pro-government Popular Mobilization Forces bound by chains before being set on fire. This video is the latest instance of their inhuman treatment of combatants and civilians under their control.
Elsewhere throughout Iraq, bombings have continued to ravage Shia neighborhoods and they show no sign of stopping. Scores of Shia Muslims have been left dead and injured from a variety of shootings and bombings. While most of these attack occurred without a group officially taking responsibility, it is largely believed that ISIS and their sympathizers are largely behind these attacks.
Afghanistan
Devastation revisited the Shia Hazara community in Afghanistan as militants shot and killed 13 Hazaras after dragging them out of their vehicles in the country’s northern province of Balkh. The 13 males were taken from two vehicles by the militants before being lined up and shot. The Taliban denied responsibility for this attack and the assailants remain at large. Shia Rights Watch urges the immediate investigation of this attack by Afghan authorities.