Iran manipulates Pakistani Shia to satisfy 'nefarious' geopolitical agenda

[BATMAN]

Mafia report here:

https://pakistan.asia-news.com/en_GB/articles/cnmi_pf/features/2018/02/16/feature-01

QUETTA -- Iran's continuing recruitment of Pakistani Shia into the proxy militias of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) constitutes a violation of Pakistan's national sovereignty meant only to satisfy Tehran's geo-political ambitions, sources tell Pakistan Forward.

Reports suggest that up to 12,000 Pakistani and Afghan Shia have been recruited into the IRGC's Zainabiyoun Brigade and Fatemiyoun Division to fight in Syria, other hotspots in the Middle East and beyond.

"Iran is fueling sectarianism in our region for its own strategic interests," said Maj. (ret.) Muhammad Omar, an Islamabad-based defence analyst.

Iran is using concepts like "Shia rights and protection" to recruit Pakistanis, he told Pakistan Forward. In reality, however, it is manipulating Pakistanis to serve the geo-political strategy of the IRGC.

Pakistanis fighting in Syria for Iranian causes are damaging Pakistan's image, he said.

"Because of Pakistani Shia fighters' war crimes in Syria, the international community is blaming Pakistan for its involvement in the Syrian war," he said.

More needs to be done to monitor the thousands of Pakistani pilgrims who enter Iran and never come back, Omar said.

"For the good of Pakistan, it is time that the security establishment take this matter more seriously with some concrete steps to foil Iranian influence," he said.

Luring Pakistanis
"Iran has its own strategy to inflame sectarian strife [in the region]," a senior counter-terrorism official with the Pakistani Defence Ministry told Pakistan Forward on condition of anonymity.

"The IRGC mostly uses Shia clerics who have close ties to Iran and some of whom have also studied in the seminaries of Qom and Mashhad," he said, referring to two of Iran's principal pilgrimage sites.

The most fertile recruitment areas for Iran in Pakistan are Parachinar, southern parts of Punjab, Karachi, Quetta and parts of Balochistan that border Afghanistan, he said.

Pakistani Shia sign up to fight with the IRGC for multiple reasons, but many are manipulated by clerics who say fighting alongside the IRGC will help protect holy sites in Syria, he said.

Extremist organisations, like the ones backed by Iran, "are cashing in on the underlying circumstances" of the people, said Allama Akbar Hussain Zahidi, president of the Shia Ulema Council in Balochistan.

In addition to sectarian arguments fomented by Iran-backed clerics, he said, "another main reason young militants are attracted to the Syrian war is money", which the militias promise Pakistanis before sending them to the front.

"Our youngsters are losing their lives for foreign designs," Zahidi told Pakistan Forward. "This war serves only the political ambitions of Iran."

Iran 'exporting revolution' in Pakistan
"A number of Iranian officials are working undercover [in Pakistan] to advance their agenda and provide financial and logistical support to groups involved in the recruitment of Shia fighters," said Usman Abid, a senior Pakistani counter-intelligence official based in Quetta.

"We are working diligently to counter foreign influence on our soil and will never allow any country to use our land for any cause," he told Pakistan Forward.

Earlier in February "a senior Iranian diplomat posted at the Iranian consulate in Quetta was arrested alongside five other IRGC-linked suspects in Quetta", Abid added.

Investigations of the suspects "revealed very important and classified information about their network. Our forces are hopeful that other members of that network will be soon under arrest," he said.

"We also suspect that a number of foreign cultural centres are undermining the integrity of Pakistan and covertly recruiting Shia fighters," Abid said.

"We want Iran to stop trying to export revolution to our region," he said.

'Nefarious designs'
Iranian proxies in Quetta "are misleading our youth ... and are using them in armed conflicts in Syria and other parts of the world", said Liaqat Ali Hazara, a Hazara tribal leader in the city and owner of the Ameer International transportation company.

"Iran-linked proxies are playing a murky game in Pakistan for their nefarious designs," he told Pakistan Forward, adding that sectarianism fomented by these groups is putting residents of Balochistan at great risk.

"Any participation by Shia militants in the Syrian war will never improve the security of our community in the country," he said.

"We must discourage those elements who are trying to use our nation for personal gains," Hazara said, adding that authorities must take action against elements that undermine the country's sovereignty.

Rashid Ahmed, a specialist on Afghan security affairs who teaches at the National Defence University in Islamabad, agreed.

"Pakistan is already a victim of terrorism, and we have lost thousands of lives in the war against terror," he told Pakistan Forward. "The state must take strict action against those groups involved in anti-peace activities."

 

[BATMAN]

Use of Pakistani brigade reveals Iran’s sectarian tactics in regional conflict

A Zainabiyoun Brigade fighter holds a banner that reads ‘Zainabiyoun, the Islamic resistance in the world, we are here for you, O Zaynab’. The brigade is made up of Pakistani Shia, recruited by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who are fighting alongside the Syrian regime. [Photo from Zainabiyoun supporters’ social media accounts]

In its quest to expand its regional influence and establish dominance, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been recruiting Pakistani youth to fight for its interests in Syria, experts tell Diyaruna.

This strategy is evidenced by the Zeinabiyoun Brigade , they said, whose elements are trained and armed by the IRGC, then transported to Syria to fight alongside other IRGC-affiliated factions and the Syrian regime.

The Zeinabiyoun Brigade was first sighted in military areas of operation in Damascus and its environs and Aleppo in mid-2014, said Cairo University doctoral student Sheyar Turko, who has been researching the financing of the IRGC.

Soon afterwards, reports about the brigade fighting in Syria alongside the Syrian regime and allied militias began circulating on social media, he told Diyaruna.

"Since 2015, social networking pages of its supporters began posting updates about its casualties in Syria," he said. "What is notable is that they were buried in Iran and not Pakistan."

"Zeinabiyoun Brigade is an armed group of Pakistani Shias, most of whom hail from areas in western Pakistan," Turko said.

Others come from impoverished areas of Punjab province, some parts of Sindh province and from northern areas near the Chinese border, he said.

Poverty is rife in these areas, Turko said, adding that the IRGC has exploited this in its recruitment operations, in addition to inflaming sectarian tensions and instilling a sense of fear among Pakistani Shia.

Attacks on Shia by the Pakistani Taliban and Jaish al-Islam have heightened that fear, he said, and have opened the way for the IRGC to extend its influence over tribesmen by playing the role of their defender.

The Zeinabiyoun Brigade is not the only military brigade or armed group the IRGC has formed in Pakistan, Turko added, but it was apparently formed solely for the purpose of foreign engagement, and for the Syrian war specifically.

IRGC-backed groups have training camps in Pakistan and several in Iran, he said, "and it is not unlikely that the elements of the Zeinabiyoun Brigade were selected from these groups for foreign operations".

Similarities with Lebanon's Hizbullah
The Zeinabiyoun Brigade and groups in other countries formed by the IRGC are much like Lebanon's Hizbullah , said Middle East Centre for Regional and Strategic Studies researcher Fathi al-Sayyed, who specialises in Iranian affairs.

"The penetration tactic is the same, the motives are the same and the objectives are the same," he said. "The only difference relates to taking into account the ideological and social differences in each country."

The sole aim of the formation of these armed groups is to "tighten [IRGC’s] control over the countries they hail from and engage in proxy wars on behalf of the IRGC in hotspots like Syria", he said.

"Iran uses these mercenaries as a means to achieve its ambitions without involving its army directly in the fighting, except for the purpose of training and direct supervision of [military] operations," al-Sayyed said.

To entice Pakistanis to fight in the ranks of this brigade, Iran amended Article 980 of the Nationality Law to confer citizenship to those who render services or notable assistance to public interests in Iran.

"Another amendment was introduced in 2016 to confer citizenship to the wives and children of non-Iranians who die in the course of carrying out a mission for Iran," he said.

Al-Sayyed said Iran's objective is to "spread sectarianism in areas that it is able to access and whose communities it is able to penetrate".

"This enables it to gradually gain control of those areas, after entering them during sectarian crises, and enables it to control groups affiliated with it on purely sectarian grounds," he said.

The involvement of the Pakistani brigade in the Syrian war "amplified the sectarian character of the conflict, and consequently increased the number of deaths and prolonged the duration of the war", he said.

Preying on religious sensitivities
During the Aleppo battles in April 2016, opposition factions captured 12 individuals fighting alongside regime forces, who turned out to be Pakistani and members of the Zeinabiyoun Brigade, said Free Syrian Army officer Saleh al-Ufeisi, who is stationed in rural Aleppo.

The opposition fighters initially thought they were Pakistanis fighting in the ranks of Lebanon's Hizbullah, he told Diyaruna.

"The emblem on the badge they wear on their uniforms is similar to that of Hizbullah’s, with the same image and yellow background, and only the inscription was different," he said.

Their Pakistani nationality was confirmed during interrogations, he said, with the group revealing they had received their training in Pakistan and had been transported to Syria to fight for 20,000 Pakistani rupees ($190) a month.

They confessed they had come to Syria "first and foremost to defend the holy [Shia] shrines", he said, as they had been convinced that Syrian opposition factions want to demolish all Shia shrines and kill members of the sect.

 

[TruthHurtz]

How is this any different from the thousands of Pakistani mercenaries working for GCC militaries butchering people in Yemen?

 

[flameboard]

If that’s their goal they’re doing a pretty shitty job at it.

 

[Ghareeb_Da_Baal]

who here is surprised?

 

[Mugwop]

How is this any different from the thousands of Pakistani mercenaries working for GCC militaries butchering people in Yemen?

What are you talking about?

 

[Trango Towers]

I do not blame Iran. Pakistani blood is cheap because Pakistani's themselves are stupid. Why fight for a country that doesnt gove a damn if u live or die.

 

[Desert Fox]

Mafia report here:

https://pakistan.asia-news.com/en_GB/articles/cnmi_pf/features/2018/02/16/feature-01

QUETTA -- Iran's continuing recruitment of Pakistani Shia into the proxy militias of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) constitutes a violation of Pakistan's national sovereignty meant only to satisfy Tehran's geo-political ambitions, sources tell Pakistan Forward.

Reports suggest that up to 12,000 Pakistani and Afghan Shia have been recruited into the IRGC's Zainabiyoun Brigade and Fatemiyoun Division to fight in Syria, other hotspots in the Middle East and beyond.

"Iran is fueling sectarianism in our region for its own strategic interests," said Maj. (ret.) Muhammad Omar, an Islamabad-based defence analyst.

Iran is using concepts like "Shia rights and protection" to recruit Pakistanis, he told Pakistan Forward. In reality, however, it is manipulating Pakistanis to serve the geo-political strategy of the IRGC.

Pakistanis fighting in Syria for Iranian causes are damaging Pakistan's image, he said.

"Because of Pakistani Shia fighters' war crimes in Syria, the international community is blaming Pakistan for its involvement in the Syrian war," he said.

More needs to be done to monitor the thousands of Pakistani pilgrims who enter Iran and never come back, Omar said.

"For the good of Pakistan, it is time that the security establishment take this matter more seriously with some concrete steps to foil Iranian influence," he said.

Luring Pakistanis
"Iran has its own strategy to inflame sectarian strife [in the region]," a senior counter-terrorism official with the Pakistani Defence Ministry told Pakistan Forward on condition of anonymity.

"The IRGC mostly uses Shia clerics who have close ties to Iran and some of whom have also studied in the seminaries of Qom and Mashhad," he said, referring to two of Iran's principal pilgrimage sites.

The most fertile recruitment areas for Iran in Pakistan are Parachinar, southern parts of Punjab, Karachi, Quetta and parts of Balochistan that border Afghanistan, he said.

Pakistani Shia sign up to fight with the IRGC for multiple reasons, but many are manipulated by clerics who say fighting alongside the IRGC will help protect holy sites in Syria, he said.

Extremist organisations, like the ones backed by Iran, "are cashing in on the underlying circumstances" of the people, said Allama Akbar Hussain Zahidi, president of the Shia Ulema Council in Balochistan.

In addition to sectarian arguments fomented by Iran-backed clerics, he said, "another main reason young militants are attracted to the Syrian war is money", which the militias promise Pakistanis before sending them to the front.

"Our youngsters are losing their lives for foreign designs," Zahidi told Pakistan Forward. "This war serves only the political ambitions of Iran."

Iran 'exporting revolution' in Pakistan
"A number of Iranian officials are working undercover [in Pakistan] to advance their agenda and provide financial and logistical support to groups involved in the recruitment of Shia fighters," said Usman Abid, a senior Pakistani counter-intelligence official based in Quetta.

"We are working diligently to counter foreign influence on our soil and will never allow any country to use our land for any cause," he told Pakistan Forward.

Earlier in February "a senior Iranian diplomat posted at the Iranian consulate in Quetta was arrested alongside five other IRGC-linked suspects in Quetta", Abid added.

Investigations of the suspects "revealed very important and classified information about their network. Our forces are hopeful that other members of that network will be soon under arrest," he said.

"We also suspect that a number of foreign cultural centres are undermining the integrity of Pakistan and covertly recruiting Shia fighters," Abid said.

"We want Iran to stop trying to export revolution to our region," he said.

'Nefarious designs'
Iranian proxies in Quetta "are misleading our youth ... and are using them in armed conflicts in Syria and other parts of the world", said Liaqat Ali Hazara, a Hazara tribal leader in the city and owner of the Ameer International transportation company.

"Iran-linked proxies are playing a murky game in Pakistan for their nefarious designs," he told Pakistan Forward, adding that sectarianism fomented by these groups is putting residents of Balochistan at great risk.

"Any participation by Shia militants in the Syrian war will never improve the security of our community in the country," he said.

"We must discourage those elements who are trying to use our nation for personal gains," Hazara said, adding that authorities must take action against elements that undermine the country's sovereignty.

Rashid Ahmed, a specialist on Afghan security affairs who teaches at the National Defence University in Islamabad, agreed.

"Pakistan is already a victim of terrorism, and we have lost thousands of lives in the war against terror," he told Pakistan Forward. "The state must take strict action against those groups involved in anti-peace activities."

When the opportunity arises, I hope we do a major f**king up of this pathetic mullah regime for all the sh!t its created in our country despite our repeated attempts to be neutral and brotherly towards them whereas they supported Indian agents like Kulbushan Yadav to sponsor terrorism in our western provinces.