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Gilgit curfew: 10 killed following grenade attack on ASWJ
Gunmen open fire on buses in reaction to a hand grenade attack which killed 5 people in Gilgit.
Hand grenade thrown at ASWJ rally, city turns into battleground between rival sects after the attack. PHOTO: MUHAMMAD JAVED/EXPRESS/FILE
GILGIT: At least 10 more people were killed in Chilas in a reaction to a hand grenade attack in Gilgit on Tuesday, said sources.
Unidentified men opened fire on passenger buses injuring several other people.
Earlier, at least five people were killed and around 50 injured after unidentified persons threw a hand grenade on a protest rally near Gari Bagh in Gilgit.
The city was already observing a strike and later a curfew was imposed after it virtually turned into a battleground between rival sects. Firing was reported despite the imposition of a curfew.
The rally was called by Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) for release of one of its leader who was detained earlier.
According to sources, two motor cyclists lobbed the grenade and fled, leaving dozens injured. Local volunteers amid firing shifted the injured to hospitals where hundreds of people turned up to donate blood.
Despite the announcement of a curfew, rival sects continued firing at each other, while the government warned residents to stay inside their houses or they would be shot dead.
According to sources, several people are stranded at various locations due to the curfew and constant firing.
The situation is said to be highly precarious due to indiscriminate firing.
In a separate incident, assailants killed a man while he was in the lawn of his house in Majini Muhalla.
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Reader Comments (64)
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When the Government stays silent, people take the matters into their own hands. why the DPC, ASWJ and the likes still have not been banned?
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I am quitting my IT Job and buying myself a gun, time to make 10 million dollars in one go.
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This is extremely sad. Another province being engulfed in violence.
What is the government and law enforcement agencies doing to stop this across the country violence?.This issue needs to be addressed on Urgent basis
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Looks like only banned organizations such as LeT, ASWJ, Sipaha-Sahaba etc. are allowed to hold rallies, carry automatic fire arms such as AK47 or grenades in open Jalsa in Pakistan.
More power to the establishment.
Such incidents support my point that Pakistan is not a nation but a crowd running amok as if someone has released snakes in the crowd.
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It’s painful it but has to be said that ASWJ had it coming….. my only regret is that instead of learning any lessons, they will now be planning a counter strike against the opposite sect.
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My sympathies are with the Sunni brothers of Gilgit, they will soon conquer the followers of Shamsuddin Araki.
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After killing armless and innocent passengers in Kohistan. Gilgit city has been battleground and tension has crippled business and offices.
If government and law enforcement agencies will implement the charter of demand and arrest real culprits of Kohistan incident. The law and order situation in Gilgit could be normalise. Secondly Kashrote town which no go area and famous for terrorist activities needs clean up operation.
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G-B is s shia majority area and these ASWJ aka sipa e sahaba are trying to terrorise them for so long….now its pay back time! :)
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It’s totally madness. All political as well as terrorist organisation leader should be hanged to death.
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It seems the same planing for establishing grounds for a new operation zone like Swat, FATA, Balochestan and some KPK to establish ret of the Govt. using divid and rule, creating insecurity and lack of peace .
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We are repeating the history instead of giving honarable lessons to our new generation.
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Its time to reunite regardless of ethnic division, we are not here to spread terrorism. we should spread islam under one platform.
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this was expected, there could be more reciprocal killings in future, state has lost its writ, its weakened.
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They just can’t mind their own business…..live and let live .
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Pakistan get rid of this sectarian violence
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@FJ
Where did that information come from ?
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Why did banned SSP aka ASWJ was allowed to hold rally ?
Peace will not restore in GB until SSP’s terrorists are put behind bars !
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@ F J “”G-B is s shia majority area and these ASWJ aka sipa e sahaba are trying to terrorise them for so long….now its pay back time! :)”"
this show real doubled face of these …when they attacked they weep n cry and now after this hand gernade attack on ASWP ..he celebrating n showing smilies….hmmm,,very interesting…!!! Recommend
why ASWJ or ASS is always a party in any sectarian riot happening in Pakistan??
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After declaring Gilgit as an unofficial fifth province of Pakistan, people of Gilgit should embrace themselves about the fact that there is more to come in the form of sectarian violence. Because when you go into a relationship you cannot cherry pick among what comes as cultural baggage.
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All Muslims must be united.
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Alas. Where is the Dr. “Writ-Of-The-State Malik“?
Why is it termed “Sunnis killing Shias or Shias killing Sunnis”. It is simply “Terrorists killing INNOCENT people” (no matter which sect).
We condemn this Cycle-of-Death. :(
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@MQM Haters
You guys must be thinking of pointing fingers to MQM for this incident as well :)
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Attack on the ASWJ rally was the reaction of the killings of Hazara community in Quetta.
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@ Tehreek-e-Insaf FATA wrote:
“Alas. Where is the Dr. “Writ-Of-The-State Malik“?
Why is it termed “Sunnis killing Shias or Shias killing Sunnis”. It is simply “Terrorists killing INNOCENT people” (no matter which sect).
We condemn this Cycle-of-Death. :(“
Where is the Shehanshah-e-PTI, imran ’90 days’ khan? No dharana for people of GB? Havent heard from the Shehanshah-e-PTI in a while, must be visiting his boys in london,eh?
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Saudi and Irani cancer eating pakistan
This is the bottom line if ANYONE has brains in PAK
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What a nonsense going on all over there in Pakistan? I am losing hope. Are we humans? Look at Balochistan, KPK, GB, Karachi, who is doing all this? We Pakistanis. No one is coming from outside. We are destroying ourselves. When will we understand?
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee……………………….
STOP THE NONSENSE OF SECTS, ETHNICITY..
STOP THE POLITICS OF VIOLENCE (PPP, MQM & ANP)
If Pakistan is broken then we will not find a place on this earth where we can take shelter bcz Iran will never allow you they will keep you in camps like they kept Afghans. We consider India as our enemy and Afghanistan consider us enemy. Don’t beleive then go and tell someone in Afghanistan that you are Pakistani…and onthe other side is???????? You know Indian Ocean.
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@Bilil:
Not really. We are just expecting them to call a strike and a ‘mourning day’ on this incident, in Karachi.
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With Pakistani Kashmiris killing each other, I wonder with what face Pakistanis claim to be patrons of the Indian Kashmiris?
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RAW n Mossad doing all this. Ahahah
Chapter closed. Back to work.
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CIA, MOSSAD and RAW involved in engineering riots throughout Pakistan. Any takers?
Where are those hawks hiding? Come out and blame USA, Israel and India.
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Is this the jihad Hafiz Saeed promised? Oh, I forgot..whenever he mentions jihad, fellow Pakistanis get killed.
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I was a staunch supporter of Kashmir joining Pakistan, now I wish that they remain where there are to escape death and destruction. The future of Pakistan is bleak and I am afraid the country is disintegrating. What is left now is to analyse where we went wrong. We cannot go on blaming the politicians, leaving the religious minded people and organizations.
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More than 10 people killed in a day in GB….. I am astonished, some of my friends just talk about SUNNIs and some of them talk about SHIAs… Peace is important for all of us… even if a single human being is harmed, irrespective of his cast, creed or sect, the peace of our region is shattered… Really disappointed to see the most educated youth condemning separate events…. we should condemn the whole scenario… whatever happened in both cases were completely inhumane..
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As much as I hate ASWJ and their ilk, there is no excuse for terrorism. Bad move by whoever is behind it.
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@MA:
Good decision. By th way if you succeed do announce others to follow. And if vanish half way your effort please do not announce.
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@SaudiRules:
Get a life dude. It is governments responsibility not IK’s to prevent killings. His dharna after the killings is not going to bring dead back. I guess both Zardari and IK have gone abroad to see their loved ones as of now. Lets see what ACTION they take when they are back. Zardari’s NO ACTION would be a bigger issue since he is responsible for security not IK.
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What else did you expect? Hazaras are killed everyday without any concrete action by the law enforcement agencies. Now, the police have only arrested one SSP leader, and the whole region is on fire . It is so clear why our police stay away from these powerful criminals. Our society is becoming more violent and extremist everyday because there is no law and order.Recommend
The only soultion is , ban the religious parties. These are not spreading the great message of Islam, they are instead spreading Fasaad.
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is army sleeping….they cant stop drone, mehran gate , obl….etc…..now this….
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Sectarian violance must be stopped. Rest of the world is moving onto new heights and we’re still caught up in sectarian issue.
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It seems the greatest enemies of Pakistan are not non-muslims. Intra-Islam fighting will prove the so-called two nation theory to be nonsense.
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My God bless my Country and beautiful city gilgit,,, this is a part of long game, in south Asia there is no more Kasmir so its Baluchistan and Gilgit Baltistan,,, our enemy already decided how they can spread China from Pakistan , so here we go….
Those who are talking about Shi and Sunni are ill minded or sick….
@ Those who are spreading hate , please listen this war is with our self only, we were loss our every thing please think positively……….Recommend
We want government of pakistan to protect minorities like shias seriously or else they might work against the interests of the state someday. This is an oppurtunity for pakistan to prove to the world that pakistan protects minorities.
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Hypocrisy-people venting their anger on a grenade attack at a terrorist rally which has claimed proudly its actions of Shia killing. What about the passengers who were massacred earlier in the same region. When the mastermind of that criminal activity was put behind the bars, the thick-heads in the rally come out shouting slogans for his release. Why release a convicted guy? Shia killings have been far more in number if numbers is what counts. Maybe people ought to get their Mathematics right.
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I must respect leaders of minority communities who have still not called on retaliations against these violence going on for past some time. Pakistan as a nation is still surviving because this violence is mostly a one side affair. Majority suppressing minority – if minorities also starts reacting in similar manner, disintegration of this nation is not far.
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I wish no road was built to connect to Gilgit..now that place will end up like SWAT.
these fanatics love to drive to beautiful place and destroy everything.
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How come Shias are not allowed open rallies (even unarmed) as do Sunnis (with arms visible to every one) even in Shia-Majority areas such as Gilgit?
Are they intimidated by Sunni majority as are other smaller minorities such as Ahmadias, or Hindus in Pakistan?
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After failing in Afghan Jiha, the frustrated Talibs subsiding their thrust with blood of shias in GB
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Its a shia masacare not sectarian voilence. the story of the day has been summarised badly. 6 shia(read : muslims) were killed earlier today in the same way as in kohistan a few weeks ago. then this incident in which dozen of people were injured happened..the difference between two incident is the claim to it.. the AWSJ (read : khawrij) perputeret these masacare in broad day light ..while hand grenade can be thrown by any one who has its interest (read : ISI, RAW…) in flaring up sectarian isse.
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Unless and until every group receives full justice and all the rights it deserves, as it did in Prophet Muhammad’s time, there can be no peace at all. No justice, no peace – the final bottom line.
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Something is rotten in the State of Denmark.
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@kashimirian ! What a shame saying I condemn only Killing of Sunni Brothers only , why donot you condemn the Shia killing twice in last 3 months . And saying they will conquer . Why donot you liberate yourself from India , which is kicking your but from last 60 years….
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In 1947, we got separated because Muslims felt threatened by the Hindus. In 1971, another division took place because the Bengalis felt threatened. Now, this is 2012. Just wondering . . . Baloch vs Punjabis, Shia vs Sunni, or Wahabi vs . . . you got the idea.
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@Naveed Alam Khattak: “If Pakistan is broken then we will not find a place on this earth where we can take shelter”
You are forgetting the all-weather and time-tested friend China. They will welcome all the Pakistanis. After all, what are friends for?
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Firstly, “Terrorism” is such a LOADED term and is one of the many fancy terms such as “Conservatism”, “Liberalism”, “Orthodoxy” … and so on, the use of which has become a vogue today. Labeling it merely as “Terrorism” won’t be enough. It would only make things simpler, so simpler that binary characterizations (“Moderates”/”Conservatives”, “Terrorists”/”Peace-lovers”) will eventually become the discourse of the day. Making sense of such a phenomenon requires the understanding of context-specificity i.e. its contingency upon particular circumstances. Thus, in order to understand better the current situation of G-B one needs to examine closely the causality connection between education, political violence, poverty and “terrorism”. Lastly, the popular defense of such acts: who-started-it-first debate is also implausible because it must always be about whether such violence and retaliation is JUSTIFIABLE or not?
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Instead of calling this a sunni- shia fight why dont we try to understand the basic difference here. while the ASWJ is a terrorist organization and is targeting the civilians on the basis of their sect, it does not represent all the sunnis. On the other hand civilians from the shia community are being targeted most of whom have no affiliation with any sectarian organization.
If its a clash between two organizations claiming to represent sunnis or shia then be it but they don’t represent more then 5 % of the sects they are claiming to represent… this is simply a massacre of shia people in the hands of a terrorist and banned outfit.. let’s ban it…Recommend
@Kashmirian. Dude,whoever you are,you really ought to be worrying about yourself and your ‘like’ before sympathising with the rest.I mean really,do people need your support?Go liberate Kashmir first and then come here acting as a saviour/sympathiser for the rest.I mean really,you are so short-sighted to think that the rest would require your support.Wake up from your slumber and get a reality check!And don’t you have the slightest of sense here to not comment like that?People need unity here and not your garbage.No wonder Kashmir is still not liberated.
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Dear Ashok, you may be happy coz two of our brotherly sects are fighting, don
t worry their misunderstandings will finish finally and come to take over Kashmir together.t you read the news of Kashmir where every day more then above number of unarmed men are taken from their houses and killed by Indian forces.This is the worst situation and after every worst there is always n best one.
why don
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ooo peace
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one must understand how the recent untoward incidents erupted in gilgit baltistan..it all started after a hand grenade attack on a peaceful rally of ehl-e -sunnat community which resultantly killed 7 innocent people mostly students and left 42 badly injured,according to the witnesses terrorist came in police uniform and attacked the rally ..similarly a planned attack was launched on sunni community in shia majority area of majini mohallah killing 2 innocent muslims…as retaliation 09 people were shot dead in chilas.recently news are comming from media that shia community kidnapped dozens of people in hunza-nagar and skardu districts and also killed 4 sunnis and 01 ismailia near sultan abad daneyore..only solution is to ban terrorist groups like ISO,shia ulma council and a operation in the areas of gilgit where these terorist have safe hideouts specially in the areas of Nager,skardu and gilgit city..v condemn both the incidents but peace must b restored and chief minister and governor should resign who left GB on fire and went to salute graves of bhuttos..government should immediately arrest the brutal culbrits invove in garenade attack as well as in kidnapping incidents..
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Who will protect Pakistan from Pakistanis?
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We send draconian forces to kill innnocent people in othet countries and those countries reward us by creating and funding terrorist training camps that are now imploding on our own population. Karma strikes back ! As for Aswj or the rebranded Sipah Sahaba – i actually read some comments by sick individuals that actually support their existence – do you people not realise that this party was created to wipe out a significant minority population and have you looked at their achievements to date – we are finished as a nation if such terrorists are supported. As for the fence sitting non action pseudo intellectual – yaaar its just a proxy war – no it is not – this is not Saudi and this is not Iran – its a Pakistani problem that needs fixing !!!!
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it is totally disgusting plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz stop it
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