Saqib Haider Karbalai

Role in the Sectarian violence in Pakistan

The initial core of Liwa Zainebiyoun constituted of former members and fighters of Tehreek-e-Jafaria Pakistan and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, the former being a Shia Islamist political party and the ladder being a Shia Islamist armed organization in Pakistan, both of which fought in the Sectarian violence in Pakistan, against the Anti-Shia sectarian leadership of the banned terrorist groups Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

During this time, Haider had served as both a commander in Tehreek-e-Jafaria Pakistan and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan. Some sources claimed that the Haider also fought directly against Pakistani Taliban, Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi based Anti-Shia extremists in the Kurram Agency War of 2007 where he commanded local Shia Turi Tribal fighters and killed many local extremists. They joined and fought initially as part of the Shia Syrian Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas brigade and later the Shia Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade during the early years of the Syrian civil war, before forming the Zainebiyoun Brigade as a Shia Pakistani volunteer group, which was formed soon after the Fatemiyoun Brigade under the orders of IRGC's Quds Force.

The IRGC appointed Haider and Shia Afghan Ali Reza Tavassoli as Chief Commanders of the Zainebiyoun and Fatemiyoun brigades respectively, mainly appointed by Qasem Soleimani, the erstwhile Iranian commander of the IRGC's Quds Force. Both Haider and Reza became the commanders of Shia volunteer fighters from Pakistan and Afghanistan respectively, with training and funding from Iran to defend the Shia holy shrines from ISIL and it's subgroups in Syria and to a lesser extent, Iraq. They both served as the commanders of their respective Brigades until their deaths.

Disappearance, death, and burial 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 while fighting ISIL.