Islamabad designs face Shia hostility in Gilgit Baltistan

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s recent efforts to alter the status of disputed Gilgit Baltistan (GB) region under PoK has been facing resistance from the locals, who are largely from the Shia community and facing discrimination for decades.

Tensions are rising in GB as significant part of the Shia population in GB feels that Islamabad had systematically marginalised them for decades.

According to Senge Sering, president of the Institute of Gilgit Baltistan Studies in the USA, Islamabad’s administrative measures for the region so far does not focus on basic rights like child education, literacy and other basic services.

All top officers in GB administration are outsiders and therefore locals consider the government apparatus as an alien one, claimed Sering. GB Human Development Index is among the lowest in the region.

Literacy rates are at 14% below Pakistan’s average literacy rate of 31%, while women literacy stands at 3.5%. Hospitals are also scarce and only one doctor is available for 6,000 persons. GB does not host any industry and 85% of the locals live below the poverty line, according to experts on the region.

Sectarian violence in GB isn’t common either, according to people from the region currently settled in the West. There are fears that sectarian violence will rise with Islamabad’s decision to try to alter the status of GB as this will lead to flight of other communities in the region. Shias have reportedly been at the receiving end. In 2012, several members of the Shia community were massacred by Sunni group Jundullah (also active along Pak-Iran border).