The Followers of Zainab Brigade (Arabic: لِوَاء الزَّيْنَبِيُون, romanized: Liwā' az-Zaynabīyūn; Persian: لواء زينبیون or لشکر زينبیون, Liwa Zeinabiyoun or Lashkare Zeinabiyoun; Urdu: لواء زینبیون), also known as the Zainebiyoun Brigade or Zainebiyoun Division, is a Pakistani ShiaKhomeinist militant group actively engaged in the Syrian Civil War.[36][4] It draws recruits mainly from Shia Pakistanis living in Iran,[4][37] with some also Shia Muslim communities living in various regions of Pakistan.[3][38]
It was formed and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and operates under their command.[4] Initially tasked with defending the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque,[5][6] it has since entered frontlines across Syria.[3] Its dead are buried primarily in Iran.[4][6] A minimum of 158 of their fighters had died in Syria as of March 2019 (based on publicly announced funeral services), excluding those killed in Israeli airstrikes.[14] According to 2019 estimates, the total number of Pakistani fighters in the brigade barely exceeded 800.[15]
The core of Liwa Zainebiyoun is constituted of former members and fighters of the Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, the former Shia Islamist armed organisation in Pakistan which fought against the Anti-Shia sectarian leadership of the banned terrorist groups Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, It had strong presence in Shia communities in Pakistan and it was headquartered in Thokar Niaz Beg the Shia majority town of Lahore, ran a "virtual state within a state" in the 1990s until its collapse in 2007 or 2010.[39] Later around 2012 or 2013 its former members formed the Zainebiyoun Brigade as a Pakistani Shiite volunteer group after the formation of Liwa Fatemiyoun Brigade, the Afghan Shiite volunteer group under the orders of IRGC,[40] According to news sources affiliated with the IRGC, the group was founded during Syrian civil war but officially started the armed operations late in 2014 especially in Syria to support Bashar al-Assad government against ISIL. Its fighters also were involved limitedly in War in Iraq (2013–2017) and Yemeni civil war under the support of IRGC as Brigade is the part of Iran's Axis of Resistance. The sources affiliated with the IRGC, Its official purpose is to defend the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque (the shrine of Zaynab bint Ali, sister of Imam Hussain and granddaughter of the prophet Muhammad) and other Shia holy sites in Syria and Iraq and to protect IRGC interests in Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict[15] also in Iran–Israel proxy conflict.[5] It operates primarily in Damascus defending holy sites. However, since 2015, it officially has engaged in intense offensives around Daraa[4][41] and Aleppo, along with other foreign Shia fighters.[3][42]
In 2019, the U.S. State Department claimed that the over 158 Pakistani national fighters of Iranian-backed Zainebiyoun Brigade were killed in Syria between January 2012 and August 2018.[20]
On 9 April 2015, seven fighters were killed defending the Imam Hasan Mosque in Damascus and were buried in Qom, Iran.[5] In March 2016, six fighters were killed defending the Imam Reza shrine, also buried in Qom.[9] On 23 April, five more fighters were killed.[10] An estimated 69 fighters were killed between November 2014 and March 2016.[3]
The brigade fought in Iraq against ISIL during the War in Iraq (2013–17) with other foreign Shia fighters to defend and protect holy sites and Iraqi peoples from the ISIL.[32]
In December 2015, a bomb killed 25 and injured over 30 in Parachinar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility, and said that it was "revenge for the crimes against Syrian Muslims by Iran and Bashar al-Assad" and threatened to continue terror attacks if Parachinar citizens did not "stop sending people to take part in Syrian war".[24]
The government of Pakistan officially denies the presence of Pakistani fighters in Syria, and has been reluctant to take back members of the brigade caught in Syria.[45]
The brigade's former commander Saqib Haider karbalai, Muhammad Jannati, also known by the Arabic-language nickname Haj Haider (Iranian nickname) in Syria he was a PakistaniPashtun Shia militant from Parachinar he was well known for his Anti-America and Anti-Zionist views and speeches in his hometown, he had strong ties with Iran's Ayatollah regime and was a strong supporter of Wilayat al Faqih concept including Khomeinism ideology. The IRGC-affiliated source's claimed that the Haj Haider went Iran, Iraq and Syria multiple times for Ziyarah of Shia holy sites in 2000s where he meet many IRGC officers and had established close ties with them at the beginning of the Syrian civil war the IRGC appointed him and Afghan Shia militant Ali Reza Tavassoli as an Chief Commanders of Zainebiyoun and
Fatemiyoun Brigade mainly appointed by Qasem Soleimani, the erstwhile Iranian commander of the Quds Force, as an commanders of Shia volunteer fighters from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen with training and funding from Iran to defend the Shia holy shrines from ISIL and it's subgroups they served as the commander of brigade until their death.[1]
In 2017, Saqib Haider Karbalai went missing while fighting alongside Syrian government forces during the Hama offensive (March–April 2017). The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported his death in 2019, claiming that the body of Haider was transferred to Tehran two years after he was killed in the Syrian city of Hama by ISIS terrorists. According to Tasnim News Agency, the identity of the commander of the Zainabiyoun Brigade was identified after a DNA test, and he was transferred to Tehran where he was to be buried. The news agency also reported that "his body has no head and no arms" and that he was killed in action in April 2017 in the Tal Turabi area in the Hama Governorate, during the offensive.[1]
Relationship with Liwa Fatemiyoun & Hezbollah Afghanistan
According to researcher Phillip Smyth, Liwa Fatemiyoun, Liwa Zainebiyoun and Hezbollah Afghanistan were originally different groups, but showed such great overlap in ideology and membership by 2014 that they had become "incorporated". In contrast, researcher Oved Lobel continued to regard Liwa Fatemiyoun and Hezbollah Afghanistan as separate organizations in 2018, though groups were part of Iran's "regional proxy network".[19] Other sources such as Jihad Intel and Arab News have treated the militas as the same organization.[52] Researcher Michael Robillard called Liwa Fatemiyoun a "branch of Hezbollah Afghanistan". Iran is also known to have established branches of Hezbollah in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with several pro-Iranian groups operating in both countries by the Soviet–Afghan War.[17][18]: 175
Designation as a terrorist organization and ban
Liwa Zainebiyoun is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in 2019, saying it is composed of Pakistani nationals and provides "materiel support" to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC and in 2024 the Interior Ministry of Pakistan banned the Zainebiyoun Brigade, saying it "is engaged in certain activities which are prejudicial to the peace and security" of Pakistan. It did not elaborate, A ministry official confirmed the authenticity of the March 29 order and placement of the Zaynabiyoun Brigade on a government list of 79 proscribed organizations.[20]
^ abRondeaux, Candance; Toumaj, Amir; Ammar, Arif (28 July 2021). "Iran's Tricky Balancing Act in Afghanistan". War on the Rocks. Archived from the original on 22 March 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022. It also established the Fatemiyoun's Pakistani sister unit, the Zeynabiyoun Brigade. Thousands of ethnic Afghan and Pakistani Hazara foreign fighters fought and died with those units to help save the Assad regime.
^Ahmed, Roohan (15 May 2019). "Missing men and the neighbouring country that cannot be named". Samaa News. Retrieved 29 April 2022. According to Aamir Rana, a security analyst and the director of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, scores of Pakistani Shias have been to Syria. "Many were arrested from Punjab and Parachinaar after they returned to Pakistan," Rana said.
^Ali, Imtiaz (22 June 2017). "CTD seeks ban on 25 websites spreading 'terrorism, extremism'". Dawn. Retrieved 29 April 2022. Meanwhile, SSP CTD Omer Shahid Hamid told Dawn that many people from Pakistan, including Karachi, had gone to fight in Syria belonging to both Sunni and Shia communities.
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