Forty-three individuals were slaughtered by Jundallah gun-toting assassins riding motorcycles. An additional 19 people were hit and wounded by the assassins. The 43 dead and 19 wounded were members of an Ismaili Muslim group riding in a bus near the city of Karachi, which is located in the southern portion of Pakistan.
Witnesses reported there were six assassins. The assassins sprayed the bus with bullets from 9mm semi-automatics. The side of the bus was peppered with hundreds of bullet holes. Inside the bus, wounded and dead people lay sprawled in pools of blood.
Occupied by men, women and children from the Ismaili Shiite sect, the bus became the target of religious radicals, who, up until Wednesday’s act of violence, had not directed their animosity toward the Ismaili community. The religious radical clique that carried out the brutal slaughter of innocents issued a statement, taking credit for the bloody violence. They also stated that there would be further bloodshed.
The radical group taking credit for the atrocity was Jundallah. Ahmad Marwat, a member of Jundallah, issued the statement. Marwat asserted that more attacks would be forthcoming. With chilling calculation, he said that Shiites would receive the brunt of Jundallah’s aggression.
Pir Muhammad Shah, a high-ranking law enforcement officer reported that almost all of the fatalities were the result of head wounds. This fact suggested that the strike was well-planned and carefully executed. Memon Medical Institute Hospital reported that 17 women and 26 men died in the Jundallah assault on the bus. One of the victims was 16 years of age.
The majority of Pakistanis belong to the Sunni sect, while a minority is Shiite. The sectarian conflict has resulted in vicious attacks on the Shiites. In January 2015, Judallah radicals carried out an attack in Shikarpur, a city located in the southern province of Sindh. During the attack, Jundallah slaughtered dozens of people in a Shiite mosque.
A month later, in February, another Shiite mosque, located in the city of Peshawar, was attacked by the Taliban. Nineteen people died, while many others were severely wounded. At the present juncture, there doesn’t appear to be a clear path to resolving the religious conflict in Pakistan.
