CSW calls for increased protections for Shia community after suicide bomb attack

CSW is calling on the government of Pakistan to increase protections for the country’s Shia Muslim community after at least 63 people were killed and nearly 200 were injured in a suicide bomb attack on a Shia mosque in Kocha Risaldar, Peshawar, Pakistan, on 4 March during Friday prayers.

The attack has since been claimed by an Islamic State (IS) affiliate group headquartered in neighbouring Afghanistan. While it was initially reported that there were two attackers, an IS statement claims that a lone attacker opened fire on police outside the mosque before proceeding to enter the building and detonate a suicide bomb.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted a condemnation of the attack, and the government has vowed to hunt down and arrest those who orchestrated it. However, this is not the first time Pakistan’s Shia community has been attacked in recent years, and CSW is concerned that extremist elements within the country have been emboldened to act by government rhetoric which has promoted and granted space to such attitudes, to the detriment of the lives and safety of sectarian and religious minorities in the country.

CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: “As the death toll from last week’s horrific suicide attack in Kocha Risaldar continues to rise, CSW extends our deepest condolences to all those who have lost loved ones, and we hope and pray for a full recovery for those still fighting for their lives. While we welcome the government’s pledge to hold to account those responsible for this heinous attack, we urge them to go further in increasing protections for the country’s Shia community and by resisting narratives which conflate national and religious identities and risk emboldening the perpetrators of religiously-motivated violence and intolerance.”