SUMMARY

The sectarian violence in Pakistan between the country's two largest denominations of Islam, the Sunni majority and the Shia minority, goes back to the Zia ul-Haqs administration. After seizing power by a coup d'etat in 1978, Zia ul-Haqs ten year rule saw rapidly escalating sectarianism in Pakistan. At the same time, the Pakistani judicial system began the process of Islamization. The process inevitably came upon issues in which Sunni and Shia viewpoints diverged. Zia ul-Haq overwhelmingly favored Sunni interpretation of Islam over the Shia one, causing a rift between two denominations that has remained. Fatal incidents have occured between the groups sporadically.

Violence erupted in the province of Kurram district in 2023 and resulted in the deaths of both Shia and Sunni individuals through shootings and clashes. The violence is carried out primarily by loosely organized groups of Sunni and Shia individuals. Most instances of fatal violence involved targeted killings of influential people with automatic rifles, which led to clashes between the two sides throughout the year.

The conflict escalated dramatically in 2024 following a series of clashes beginning in July. The violence remained confined to the Kurram district and by December, almost 160 fatalities had been recorded in the UCDP data. Attempts were made to reach ceasefires during the second half of the year with a successful ceasefire agreement being reached on December 2.

The non-state conflict between Sunni and Shia in Pakistan is first included in the UCDP data in 2023. In October of that year, the dyad crossed the threshold of 25 battle-related deaths following a series of clashes and shootings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram district.