Pakistan's deadly Sunni-Shi'ite divide

In August 2012 a group of around 20 men linked to LeJ boarded a bus outside the remote town of Gilgit, in the mountain range where this man sits. Disguised as Pakistani soldiers, they checked the passengers’ identification cards, singled out 19 Shi’ites and killed them, mostly by shooting them in the head.

The sectarian slaughter was not an isolated incident. These police officers stand at a spot close by where, according to the police, about 16 passengers from a bus were gunned down in February 2012.

What’s more, the foothills of the Himalayas are not the only area where anti-Shi’ite violence has flourished. The conflict is also gathering pace in urban areas such as Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, where this Shi'ite cleric spoke to protesters in November 2011 after sectarian clashes in which two people were killed, two others wounded, and angry mobs set fire to cars and motorbikes.

The violence is intertwined with Pakistan's long-standing role as a battlefield in a proxy conflict between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran, which have been competing for influence in Asia and the Middle East since the 1979 Iranian revolution. In this volatile context, LeJ has unleashed an escalating campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations against ethnic Hazaras - a small, Persian-speaking minority of Pakistan’s Shi'ite population, to which these young sketching students belong.

Followers with assault rifles guard the home of the leader of LeJ, Malik Ishaq, who spent 14 years in jail in connection with dozens of murder and terrorism cases. He was released after the charges could not be proved - partly because of witness intimidation, officials say - and showered with rose petals by hundreds of supporters when he left prison in July 2011.

Ishaq, shown sitting on a bed with his son Malik Usman, says he is a leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP), LeJ's parent group. Pakistani officials say, however, he still runs or at least inspires LeJ itself. Ishaq, who has been acquitted 34 times on charges of culpable homicide and terrorism, is absolutely clear in his statements against Shi’ites. He calls them the "greatest infidels on earth," and says, "the state should declare Shi'ites as non-Muslims on the basis of their beliefs."

Clutching an AK-47, a man stands guard outside the house where Ishaq lives, which is surprisingly easy to find considering that he is linked with an outlawed group accused of fomenting so much mayhem. LeJ wasn’t always illegal, however. Prior to the attacks of September 11, it had enjoyed the open support of the powerful Pakistani spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, which used such groups as military proxies in India and Afghanistan and to counter Shi'ite militants.

Now members of the Pakistani authorities have said they are committed to combatting LeJ. Mahmood Baber, who had been part of LeJ for 16 years, was arrested along with other members of the movement, handcuffed and draped in a cloth. Baber described the "great satisfaction" he felt in killing 14 Shi'ite "terrorists” over the course of his career.

Shi’ite Hazaras, like this young boy playing with a kite, have suffered from the violence. At least 100 Hazaras have been killed this year, according to Human Rights Watch, leaving some 500,000 fearful of venturing out of their enclaves. In retaliation for anti-Shi’ite strikes, Shi'ite extremists have not adopted the kind of attacks favoured by LeJ, but they have hunted down members of the SSP.

Sectarian violence is having a profound impact on locals, like these children, around the town of Gilgit, and is limiting their freedom of movement. A Shi'ite shopkeeper from the town, Muneer Hussain Shah, whose brother was killed in a grenade attack, lamented: "Sunnis can't go to some areas and Shi'ites can't go to others."

In Gilgit, law enforcement itself is also a victim of sectarianism, said police chief Usman Zakria. Shi'ite officers are reluctant to investigate crimes committed by Shi'ites, and the same is true of Sunnis.