In a brutal attack last week, five people from the Shia community were killed in the Rustam area of Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, when Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) terrorists targeted their home. While IS-K openly claimed responsibility for the killings and published images of the aftermath in its propaganda magazine Al-Naba, local police have downplayed the incident, attributing the deaths to a lightning strike that allegedly caused the house to catch fire.
ISKP’s message, shared alongside a photo of the destroyed home, asserted that the attack was deliberately aimed at the Shia sect, a community increasingly under siege by extremist elements in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Despite this, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have denied the group’s claim, insisting that the deaths were caused by natural forces, not a terrorist attack. Authorities are still awaiting the post-mortem report.
The Islamic State’s claim, however, comes on the heels of a series of escalated attacks on Shia communities in the region. Just days earlier, ISKP terrorists massacred Shi’ite pilgrims in central Afghanistan, releasing images of the bloody aftermath. Since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, the Sunni extremist group has intensified its campaign of violence against the Shia minority, particularly the Hazara community, which has long been persecuted in the region.
The Pak authorities failure to acknowledge these attacks not only undermines the safety of minority groups but also reveals the occupied-state’s inability to control the rising influence of ISKP.