Kashmiri Activist Javad Ahmad Beigh

Geneva: Renowned socio-political activist, Javed Ahmad Beigh on Friday intervened at the UNHRC session in Geneva and strongly raised the issue of the plight of Pashtun Shias of Parachinar, which is located in the Kurram district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Speaking on behalf of India at the 31st meeting of the 55th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Beigh strongly raised the issue of the miserable plight of Pashtun Shias of Parachinar, which is located in the Kurram district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Beigh, who hails from Indian Kashmir Valley's Budgam district, posted on X, "Dear Friends, I am extremely pleased to share a video of my intervention at 55th session of United Nations UNHRC in Geneva, Switzerland, exposing Punjabi Muslim run and dominated Pakistan on its dubious, bloody, violent, horrifying and pathetic record of treating Pakistan's Shia Muslim minority in humanly worst possible manner."

"As a member of India's Kashmir Valley's 1.5 million strong Shia Muslim community, are acutely aware of the mistreatment of Shia Muslims in Pakistan," he added.

The activist highlighted that the Shias of Pakistan have been facing violence and religious radicalization.

"Pakistan - a doomed country, was founded in the name of Islam by a Gujarati Shia Muslim, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and yet Shias of Pakistan are today at the receiving end of continuing and relentless violence driven by the ever-increasing religious radicalization of Pakistani Punjabi Muslims and Pakistani Punjab based anti-Shia religious organisations," he said.

"Kashmir's Shias (nearly 20 per cent of total Kashmiri Muslim population) are very well aware of the miserable plight of Pakistani Shia Muslim communities like Pashtun Shias of Parachinar, Hazara Shias of Balochistan and Shias & Ismailis of Pakistan Occupied Gilgit and Baltistan," he added.

During his intervention speech at the 55th session of UNHRC, Beigh said that people in the Kashmir valley are closely watching the continued pathetic plight of Shia Muslims in Pakistan. He added that the persecution of Shias has reached such an extent that Pakistani institutions, state judiciary, and the media have become immune to violence committed against Shias.

He also added in his intervention speech that, in comparison, India's Jammu and Kashmir has become a gifted land where interfaith harmony, progress and economic well-being of all have taken firm roots.

Javed Beigh highlighted some of past and recent incidences of violence against Pashtun Shias of Parachinar, most of whom belong to Turi and Shia Bangash Pashtun tribes, who have been at the receiving end of sectarian violence for the last 3 decades at the hands of Pakistan based extremist organizations, run on radical religious ideologies like Deoband and Salafism, which consider Shias as "heretics".

Javed Beigh pointed out in his intervention speech that in 2007, a fierce sectarian war broke out in Parachinar between Sunni Pashtun militants and Turi and Shia Bangash Pashtun tribesmen, in which more than 3000 people died.

He further highlighted that in 2017, in one of the worst terror attacks on Shias in modern Pakistan, 67 Pashtun Shias were killed in a bomb attack in the Parachinar market and he also mentioned that just last year, six Shia school teachers from the Turi Pashtun tribe were gunned down.

Javed Beigh concluded his intervention at the 55th session of UNHRC at Geneva by stressing that with the rapid rise of religious extremism in all parts of Pakistan, things look extremely bleak for the Shia Pashtuns of Parachinar.

Javed Beigh added, "It is high time that the world must be made aware of the hell that Punjabi Muslim controlled Pakistan has become for its Shia Muslims."

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