The world’s largest population of Shia Muslims outside Iran is found in neighbouring Pakistan where they account for an estimated 15 to 20 per cent of the population. Although a sizeable minority in the country’s four provinces and major cities, they are the majority in the northernmost autonomous region of Gilgit-Baltistan. Relations between Pakistani Shia and the larger Sunni community have been largely harmonious since the creation of Pakistan in 1947 after the partition of India. Sectarianism was never really at the forefront of identity politics at the time and the country’s secular founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who hailed from an Ismaili Shia family, envisioned that the country would be progressive, democratic and tolerant of minorities, even as a Muslim-majority … Continue reading If Pakistan is unwilling to protect its Shia citizens, they may look to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards