‘Saudis funding anti-Shia terrorism in Pakistan, ME’

Question: Why is it that Shias are being targeted in Pakistan? Because based on the latest stat that I was able to come up with, 20,000 Shia Muslims have been killed in the last few decades in your country, why is that happening?
 
Haidar: From what I understand, I mean what is really happening in Pakistan ever since three to four decades ago when this so-called religious strife or the war of ideas between the Shia school of thought and Sunni school of thought became very apparent, the Saudis who have a great influence on what we call the Madrasa institutions have funded all these organizations which have been responsible for killings of Shias, especially now it is becoming very pronounced. Lashkari Jangvi that you were talking about, is based in the Lahore, Pakistan, which is the stronghold of the Sharif family which is ruling Pakistan at this point in time.
 
And Sharif family knows that their connection with Lashkare Jangvi is there, so those are the things which are happening.
 
So talking about collusion, yes there is a collusion going on; at least there is a perception that collusion is going on between these so-called establishment and these organizations which are responsible for the killings of Shias especially in the past year, when massacres have taken place. It is literally a genocide that is happening in Pakistan.
 
Q: Well, Masood Haidar we heard about how Shias are being targeted, that is clear now. But the question still remains why? And our guest also talked about how the government may be complicit along with, perhaps, the intelligence agency in Pakistan.
 
Tell us how that has occurred and why it is that the Pakistani government allows this to continue?
 
Haidar: Yes, this is absolutely outrageous what is happening. Of course there is this element of collusion of the establishment or the government..., because the impunity with which these organizations operate and have not been brought to justice is absolutely outrageous and we hear..., and the thing is simply that this has been simple going on for a very long time and nobody seems to be bothering in Nawaz Sharif’s home bases in Lahore, that is where Lashkare Jangvi is established and that is where it is there and everybody is saying that that organizations should be somehow apprehended or dismantled but this is not being done. Why? Because there must be a collusion between ..., I mean that is what has been speculated.
 
What my fear is, is that Pakistan at this point in time is now poised for a genocide of Shias unless the various schools of thoughts do come together like from the Saudi school of thought, Wahhabism and the Shia school of thought from Iran and so forth, sit down and talk about it.
 
This is not only in Pakistan, in Iraq or in Syria this is going to explode. I think it is high time that the United Nations and the OIC, the Organization of Islamic Conference, which is now based in Saudi Arabia, should now sit down together and figure out a way that how there should be some amity created between these two schools of thought to save the Shia population all over the world.
 
I think they are poised now for a genocide and that is very outrageous.
 
The OIC, let me tell you, has not been able to even say anything about it. The United Nations stays away from this issue because Saudi Arabia is involved.
 
So all these things matter but ultimately..., I mean besides  the Human Rights Watch, which is a good independent group..., somebody should raise his voice that this should be taken up at the international level.
 
Q: Masood Haidar you mentioned Saudi Arabia, of which Saudi Arabia recently donated 1.5 billion dollars to the Pakistani government. Why did the Pakistani government accept that? What is Saudi Arabia’s involvement in this whole matter?
 
Haidar: As a matter of fact, it is a good thing that you brought up. We were just talking to Pakistan’s finance minister about why did Pakistan accept Saudi Arabia’s 1.5 billion dollars and he said that it is nothing because before that Zardari government has been also recipient of largess but that does not mean anything. The relations between the Nawaz Sharif government and the Saudi government are very apparent because Nawaz Sharif in exile lived in Saudi Arabia and he has lots of property and he has lots of interests in Saudi Arabia, he and his brother Shahbaz Sharif. That is not a secret, it is open and everybody knows about this thing.
 
And the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the Pakistani government are very good in any case, but the thing is, if they are allowed to continue to fund these organizations which are targeting and killing the Shias, then it becomes a different story and that is what is very outrageous and now in Syria and Iraq...
 
Q: Let me jump in here Masood Haidar, what is outrageous, are reports that indicate that Saudi Arabia is not just giving money but there are actually some commitments that it wants from the Pakistani government to have.
 
A- not to prosecute any of the groups that are responsible for some of these killings.
 
and B- they want the Shias out, they want them terminated, because that is exactly what these groups are doing.
 
Haidar: Yes, that is what is said in the international community. It is being said very openly that Saudi Arabia is giving this 1.5 billion or even more money because it wants Pakistani army to train these so-called Mujahidins or these groups of al-Nusrah to be trained in Pakistan to go to Syria, on the Syrian front.
 
That is very openly being discussed in Pakistan that the Saudi Arabians are funding, and I have talked to the Pakistani army, to train the soldiers or the militants for the war in Syria.
 
And the same thing in Iraq, they want these Nusrah or these so-called fundamentalist groups from al-Qaeda going to these areas. And that is what is very, very dangerous.