3.2.12. Sipah-e Mohammed Pakistan (SMP)

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Sipah-e Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) is a Shia militant group backed by Iran449 that was involved in tit-for-tat killings with SSP in the 1980s and 1990s.450 Its main objective is to protect the Shia community from Sunni militant outfits.451 In an interview with the EUAA in March 2026, Abdullah Khan, Managing Director of PICSS, stated that SMP primarily operates in central Punjab and Karachi, although its activities have decreased over the years. Khan indicated that while the group ‘still exists, its influence is much smaller than in the 1990s’. Currently, more prominent Shia groups are operating in Pakistan, including the (Iran-backed) Zainabiyoun Brigade.452

  • 449

    Khan, Abdullah, Managing Director of PICSS, online interview with EUAA, 26 March 2026; Ahmad, O., Iran and Pakistan Cooperate on Counter-Terrorism Amid Jaish al-Adl and Baloch Separatist Attacks, The Jamestown Foundation, 21 August 2024, url; International Crisis Group, A New Era of Sectarian Violence in Pakistan, 5 September 2022, url, p. 2

  • 450

    International Crisis Group, A New Era of Sectarian Violence in Pakistan, 5 September 2022, url, p. 2

  • 451

    SATP, Sipah-e-Mohammed Pakistan, Terrorist Group of Pakistan, n.d., url

  • 452

    Khan, Abdullah, Managing Director of PICSS, online interview with EUAA, 26 March 2026