Zainabiyoun is best understood not as a fully autonomous ‘Pakistani brigade’ but as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) -run foreign-fighter formation embedded inside the expeditionary system of the Quds Force. Its fighters were recruited mostly from Pakistani migrants and refugees in Iran by the IRGC and Basij.

SENIOR/MID-LEVEL FORMATION

Early senior and mid-level commanders include Zinat Ali Jafari (Killed in Syria), Aqid Malik (Killed 2015), and Mutahhar Hussain (Killed 2015); Iranian commanders/advisers such as Mohammad Jannati (Haji Haider), Ali Reza Jilan alias Zulfiqar head of the Sub unit Rasul Akram (Alive), and Hamidreza Ziaei (Killed in Abu Kamal); and Pakistani operations commander Saqib Haider (Karbala), who died beside Haji Haider during reconnaissance. The pattern that emerges is hybrid command: Pakistani cadres at tactical and unit level, with important Iranian liaison or command roles at brigade level, logistics, artillery, and external coordination. This hybrid structure is consistent with how the IRGC-QF manages other expeditionary formations.

The current leadership of the Zainabiyoun Brigade in Pakistan resides with Abid Hussain Turi alias ‘Tehran Turi’. He is in his late 40s and a resident of Nasti Kot/Upper Kurram. He is the key Kurram-area militant commander. As per sources he is the overall national or transnational commander. Another important commander or the perceived 2IC of Abid Turi is Inayat Ali Turi from Parachinar-based Shia/Turi. He was also the former or ex-secretary of Anjuman-e-Hussainia Parachinar and as a public spokesperson/tribal representative in Kurram crises. Additionally, numerous cases involved multiple suspects from Gilgit-Baltistan; fighters such as Aftab Hussain alias ‘Hakeemullah’. Likewise, there is a high recruitment from Skardu, Kharmang and Shigar districts in Gilgit-Baltistan. For instance, Syed Hussain Mousavi alias ‘Muslim’ from Skardu heads the Karachi Cell of the Brigade. Similarly, mid-level Karachi Chapter Commanders Waqar Abbas and Hussain Akbar are also from Gilgit-Baltistan.

KURRAM AS BASE

The evidence for Kurram as Zainabiyoun’s most important Pakistani recruitment and social base is strong. Kurram is structurally different from the Gilgit-Baltistan districts. It borders Afghanistan on three sides; it has a long history of violent Sunni-Shia conflict; roads and governance failures repeatedly produced enclave psychology; and the local Shia population (especially among the Turi and Shia Bangash tribes) has a dense network of seminaries, martyrs’ narratives and political memory linked to both anti-Shia victimhood and Iranian clerical symbolism. Also, many poorer Kurram residents moved to Iran for work, while seminary students went to Qom; some of these pathways were later leveraged for recruitment, training and funding into Zainabiyoun.  In other words, Kurram offers the full package: grievance, ideological framing, geographic chokepoints, weak state penetration, veteran returnees, and pre-existing clerical/student pipelines into Iran. Skardu, Shigar and Kharmang appear better understood as secondary feeder or support environments embedded in a larger Gilgit-Baltistan Shia milieu, not as the brigade’s principal operational center. Additionally, IRGC explicitly links Zainabiyoun recruitment to local experience ‘fighting Taliban and Wahhabis’ in Parachinar.

Note: Pakistan formally proscribed the organization on 29 March 2024; the move was publicized on 11 April 2024 and reflected concern that Iran might activate the group for retaliation or domestic sectarian violence.