Pakistani Taliban Continue to Target Sufi Sacred Spaces

In troubled Pakistan, sacred spaces such as Sufi shrines have increasingly been the target of bloody attacks by Taliban and al-Qaeda militants. The Taliban-Deobandi school of Islam perceives Sufi practices such as devotional whirling dances, the veneration of Sufi saints and other rituals as being un-Islamic and against the tenets of the religion. 

On April 3, a twin suicide attack outside the revered shrine of 13th century Sufi saint Sakhi Sarwar (a.k.a. Ahmed Sultan) in the Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab province claimed nearly 50 lives, including women and children. The attacks targeted a crowd gathered outside the shrine for the annual Urs festival and left more than 100 people injured (Pakistan Observer [Islamabad], April 3; Express Tribune [Karachi], April 4).

Read Full Text at Terrorism Monitor, Jamestown Foundation, Washington DC.