In Oct. 1998, two religion extremists were sentenced to death penalty in Pakistan. They were charged with murdering two Iranian engineers in Karachi in February that year. The two sentenced were among the seven suspects who killed Iranian engineers while they were working on a bridge construction project in Karachi. The other five suspects were not captured yet. It's believed those suspects were members of a Sunni Muslim extremist group. The group was linked to several violent acts aimed at Shi'ite Muslims who are minority in Pakistan. Sunni Muslim groups accused Shi'ite-dominant Iran of supporting Pakistan Shi'ite opposition groups.

Although extremist were only a small faction of Muslim population. The violence has resulted in hundreds of death since start of the year. The violence aimed at Shi'ite Iranian has harmed the relation between Tehran and Islamabad. Five Iranian trainees were killed by Sunni extremists last year. The diplomats were also aimed as target. Iran also accused Pakistan of supporting Taliban-an Afghanistan Sunni radicalist group. Taliban soldiers killed eight Iran diplomats in north Afghanistan in August 1998. Taliban were also accused of killing thousands of Shi'ite Muslims in that region.