The devastating suicide bombing on a Sufi shrine which killed more than 80 people in southern Pakistan on February 16 is only the latest in an ever-increasing list of attacks on followers of Sufi Islam.
Music, Dancing, And Tolerance -- Pakistan's Embattled Sufi Minority
- By Amos Chapple
1
The Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine, which was hit on February 16 by a suicide bomb attack. The shrine is a revered site for Sufis, a minority sect of Islam.
2
A Sufi devotee dances during annual celebrations at the shrine. Every year, the site is host to the world's largest Sufi festival.
3
A Sufi woman dances during the annual celebrations at the shrine in 2012. The devotees describe themselves as the "Anti-Taliban" and stand for "love, tolerance and the great infinity."
4
Sufis dance at the shrine in 2008. During the festival the air is heavy with drumbeats, chanting and cannabis smoke.
5
A devotee dancing to the beat of the drum at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in 2013. The Huffington Post describes Sufism as a branch of Islam which "employs music, dance and spiritual recitation to awaken the God who Sufis say is asleep in the human heart."
6
Devotees reach out for sacred water inside the shrine in 2013. Sufism draws on some rituals of pre-Islamic traditions.
7
A woman devotee dances in a trance inside the shrine in 2013. Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, the Sufi saint interred here, is revered by both Sufi Muslims and Hindus.
8
A devotee's hand is pictured decorated with rings inside the shrine. The annual festival is a spectacular parade of colorful clothing and personal decorations.
9
The interior of the shrine in 2013. Sufism has come under increasing attacks in recent years by hard-line Islamists who believe Sufis are heretics.
10
A devotee dances during the annual festival at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar Shrine in 2013. In November 2016, 45 people were killed in a bombing attack inside another Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan, and in June 2016, a revered Sufi musician was shot dead inside his car in Karachi, Pakistan.
