Pakistan has banned the activities of an Iran-backed Shia militant group that it says is involved in recruiting and sending young Pakistanis to fight in Syria in support of President Bashar Assad’s regime.
An interior ministry directive seen by VOA on Thursday identified the banned group as the Zainabiyoun Brigades, which it said was “engaged in certain activities prejudicial to the peace and security of Pakistan.” It did not elaborate.
A ministry official who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to interact publicly with the media confirmed the authenticity of the March 29 order and added the Zaynabiyoun Brigade to the government’s list of 79 banned organizations.
The United States designated the Zainabiyoun Brigades as a terrorist organization in 2019, saying it is composed of Pakistani nationals and provides “material support” to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The group has reportedly been mobilizing fighters among Pakistani refugees in Pakistan and Iran, whom the IRGC trained to prepare for the Syrian civil war that broke out in 2011.
In January this year, the counter-terrorism department in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province reported the arrest of a Zainabi Yon Brigade suspect, saying the man was involved in an assassination attempt on a prominent cleric.
In 2019, an attack on Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani in the provincial capital Karachi left two security guards dead and a fellow religious scholar injured, but the cleric narrowly escaped unscathed.
Pakistani officials say Pakistani nationals trained to fight in Syria have returned home and pose a threat to the country’s security. There is a history of deadly rivalry between extremists from the Sunni Muslim majority and extremists from the Shiite minority.
Sectarian violence has killed thousands over the years but has recently subsided.
Islamabad’s addition of the Tehran-backed militant group comes amid border tensions over mutual accusations of terrorism.
In early January, Iranian security forces carried out drone and missile attacks inside Pakistan on what they said were sanctuaries for anti-Iran militants. Pakistani forces have retaliated with similar attacks inside Iran on what they say are bases for fleeing rebels.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi held a telephone conversation on Thursday. Zardari’s office said in a statement that the two leaders discussed security cooperation and other issues.
Zardari “stressed the need to enhance information exchange to overcome security challenges faced by both countries,” the statement said.
The two countries share a 900-kilometer border and often accuse each other of supporting or not doing enough to prevent cross-border militant infiltration.
Fatemiyong
The IRGC is also believed to have formed a militia composed of nationals from neighboring Afghanistan and hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees in Iran. The militia, known as the Fatemiyoun Division, has been designated a terrorist organization by Washington.
“The Fatemiyoun Division … targets millions of undocumented Afghan immigrants and refugees in Iran,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in 2019 when it announced the group’s designation along with the Zaynabiyoun Brigade. , forcing them to fight in Syria under threat of arrest or deportation.”
“Treasury’s targeting of Iran-backed militias and other foreign proxies is part of our ongoing pressure campaign to shut down Iran’s illicit networks. [Iranian] Regimes used to export terrorism and unrest around the world,” the U.S. statement said.
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