Murders of faith in a land of violence
An ethnic Hazara man is comforted by community members, after he arrived to the local hospital in Quetta to find a family member shot dead, May 6, 2011. Suspected Islamist militants on Friday opened fire on a group of Pakistani Shi'ites in the southwestern town of Quetta, killing at least eight and wounding 15, police said. – Reuters Photo
QUETTA: The hardcore sectarian outfits find the deteriorating security conditions in Balochistan, particularly in Quetta, conducive to target the Hazara-Shias. The violence against them is not ethnic but sect-based and confessions given to the police by Lashkar-i-Jhangvi cadres confirm this.
“It isn’t that the sectarian organisations are not targeting other Shias. We happen to be an easier target of their bullets because of our distinct Mongolian features,” Muhammad Asif, an ethnic Hazara, tells Dawn.
The Hazaras, divided between the Alamdar Road in the east and Hazara Town in the west of the city, feel cut-off and besieged in the wake of the violent attacks on them since the year 2000.
“It is curfew-like: we can move freely in our areas but not venture out,” Asif, a provincial government employee, says. “I do not follow a set routine, do not use official car and have to hide my whereabouts even from my colleagues to avoid a bullet from the extremists.”
These fears are for real, as is the urge for precautions. One of Asif’s senior colleagues, also an ethnic Hazara Shia, was shot down just outside his office building in 2009 on Sariab Road. He had disregarded advice from friends and had continued to follow a daily regime.
A number of ethnic Hazaras have been targeted on Sariab Road, which divides the city’s Baloch inhabitants from the rest of its population and which non-Baloch usually avoid ever since the start of target killing of the Punjabi and other settlers. Still no one even suggests the possibility of the involvement of Baloch insurgents in the killing of Hazaras.
“No, it cannot be them,” one Hazara resident of Alamdar Road says, refusing to give his name. “We are not settlers in the sense Punjabis are. We are not a demographic threat to the Baloch population in the way other settlers are. We have been living here for over a century.”
Home department officials also insist the Hazaras are targeted because of their faith and not because of their ethnicity. In most, if not all, incidents of sectarian violence in the capital of Balochistan officials and the Hazara community suspect the involvement of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi ‘supported by the Taliban living in the province’.
“I myself heard a Taliban leader from Pishin instigating his followers to kill the Hazaras,” says the anonymous Alamdar Road resident, adding this was proof enough for him. The LJ claims in which it has accepted the responsibility of almost all attacks on Hazaras and the confessions of some of its activists arrested in the past more or less clinch the issue.
Ethnic Hazaras had migrated from Hazarajat in central highlands of Afghanistan more than 100 years ago to escape religious persecution of its rulers. They settled in Quetta as soldiers in the colonial army. They have been the target of religious violence since mid-1980s. But the attacks on them began to intensify in 2000, the year one of their top leaders, Sardar Nisar Ali Hazara, was gunned down in Quetta.
Ever since, the extremists have targeted them repeatedly and with increasing severity. In May this year 14 ethnic Hazaras were killed in two separate gun-and-bomb attacks in Hazara Town. In June a Hazara policeman was shot down only two days before Olympian boxer Syed Abrar Hussain, who was also director general of the Pakistan Sports Board in Quetta, was shot dead near Ayub Stadium in the heart of the city.
“We have lost more than 500 people in sectarian attacks on our community (in the last 10 years or so). Every ethnic Hazara family has been affected, directly or indirectly, by the violence against them. Everybody has lost a relative or a friend or a neighbour,” says Mirza Azad of the Tanzeem Nasle-Nau Hazara.
“Our playgrounds are being raided, our homes and mosques are under fire and our religious processions are being attacked by religious extremists,” he says. “The authorities have done nothing to protect us from them. Not a single case in which a Hazara was killed has been solved.”
Hazara Democratic Party’s Abdul Khaliq Hazara claims his party had informed the provincial home department and the office of the IG police on March 3 that religious extremists supported by the Taliban were planning to carry out attacks against the ethnic Hazaras. “No action was taken by either the home department or the police,” he says and points out that “all the Hazara killings during May and June” had taken place only a small distance from the security checkposts.
Officials concede the government has so far been unsuccessful in checking the ongoing violence against the ethnic Hazaras.
The Hazaras are also not happy with the politicians for their failure to stand by them against religious hatred. “Not a single politician was seen at the funeral of Abrar. Now it could be that they are afraid of taking a position against religious violence and hatred,” Azad asks.
He also complains about the ‘silence’ of media on the Hazara killings. “Isn’t it amazing that the entire electronic media chooses to discuss the Shahid Afridi-PCB row for several days but not a single word is said when Abrar is gunned down,” Azad says as he links the Hazara killings to the “Talibanisation of our society”.
He recounts several instances in which Hazara businessmen were abducted and released only after payment of substantial ransom. “Many of them have wound up their business, sold their property and left the country for good.”
For those who can manage it, escaping the country is the only option for as Muhammad Asif says: “We are not like other settlers who can go back to Punjab or Karachi or Abbottabad to their relatives or communities. If we want to leave Quetta we will have to quit this country. It is just that not all of us can use this option.”
Hazaras, Shiahs, members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, who is next? Any government that does not protect its minorities should realize that in fact 'their turn will be next'. Well, already the same extremists are targeting the Government. When will they succeed?
Media and the Courts of Pakistan discriminate……..if today it is Hazaras tomorrow it can be you so think deeply and
stop discriminating……….
my dear sajjad,
when has government not discriminated? you are perfectly correct when you say govt doesnt want to solve this issue, what we as a nation(pakistani) has to do is fight this mennace ourselves, even if we have to give lives for it or take lives for it …. think.
I blame Pakistani courts who failed to convict any murderer especially those involved in targetted killings of innocent people on secterian grounds.
Islam is a religion of peace.we claim it z universal religion.we all Muslims have forgotten message of Allah & his prophet Mohammad peace be upon him to love human being.we all r same in the eyes of Allah.no Arab is better than non Arab. this is not a way to impress sum one or make pressure to convert sect or religion. what lashkari jhangvi is doing against hazaras is totally ridiculous. Un bearable & they should be treated strictly like criminals.they r enemies of Islam.they r murderers,killers,they r involved in bomb blasting,they have been used by USA to killing innocent people of Pakistan & Afghanistan. conversion into Islam of different people has been stopped due to such kind of rigid & conservatives.
People of Hazara have fought and bled for Pakistan, they have served with dedication in the Pakistan armed forces in the past, yet it is very shameful that they have been completely let down by the security apparatus. Religious bigotry and fanaticism has now crept deep into our society, this is why the media, security forces and politicians have turned a blind eye to the genocide of Hazarans. Corruption and lawlessness is destroying the fabric of the society…. God Forbid, if civil riots break out in any one part of the country either on ethnic or religious grounds, they could spread like wildfire across the country and the mighty pak army would not be able to do anything.
Really SAD to see government's indifference ..
If we dont value human life in Pakistan then we should not expect anyone outside of Pakistan to value ours
Its not only Pak, extremists are growing in almost every Islamic country. some how this need to be stopped and protect innocent people. Madrassas should not preach hate against any human.
I wonder despite of repeated incident none of the local or national human rights organizations condemned these barbaric acts of terror. State and local Government has already lost their credibility. They have failed to provide the very basic rights (security) to its citizens. They have no moral courage to accept their responsibility and quit their positions over killing of innocent civilians. This country was meant to be “the fort of Islam” but now it seems that the increasing religious intolerance is weakening its basis if not dealt with iron hands which is doesn’t seem to be applicable due to consideration of “good” and “bad”.
I am a Hazara from Quetta and a professional architect working abroad since 2005. I'm keenly following the overall situation in Balochistan while I must admit that it is getting worse every passing day. The lawlessness and the cold blooded manhunt are prevailing in the city in the presence of a so called government & the so called world's strongest army backed up by intelligence agencies.
Being a Hazara, the current situation of Quetta evokes a historical period of mass persecution that took place in the history of mankind during the first quarter of 20th century where scores of innocent people was murdered in the name of survival of the fittest aided with the term ‘social Darwinism’.
The peaceful, loving & mutual respect of ethnic values of citizens of Quetta & Balochistan has been ruptured brutally by fostering a certain mindset & bigoted policy. We must remember that the mass murder induce dreadful repercussions and history shows that those who are responsible (governments & establishment) for act of genocide will someday have to pay a big price.
I'm ashamed of myself as a Pakistani on reading this article. The Hazara's are our brothers and they've been living in Pakistan for many decades and our government is doing nothing to protect them. I'm a Punjabi and would like to convey my hearfelt applogies to Hazara community for not being able to do anything for them.
One wonders to witness the systematic shift of sectarian violence to Quetta, a city which has for about a century harmoniously harboured people of different castes and creeds. It seems as if sectarian targeted killings have wholly disappeared from other provinces specially Punjab. One hardly believes that security machinations are out of the game.
My strong support and solidarity to the Hazars.
Pakistani government should be ashamed of calling themselves Muslims. It is disgusting All this killing and Pakistani authorities have no idea and do nothing
A non Pakistani
very sad… people are being killed in the name of religion…my sympathies with all those who are affected…
Govt and agencies are not sincere to resolve the issue and instead supp…..
Why don't the normal sunni speak out against these LJ Taliban Wahabis that preach their followers to kill as many shia as possible. How would you feel living in fear alllllllll the time. Don't the local government feel anything for their citizens? I can't even kill an ant and these people are happily killing their fellow Pakistanis. This is unbelievable and so so sad. May Allah protect us all
Even today, many people call to have a dialogue with these barbarians! Many still sympathies with them (due to their religious affiliation)! Many still defend these inhumane Talibans and their 'honorable' characters! Many still struggle to prove Talibans innocent! Many try to distinguish between good and bad Talibans saying 'Afghans are good while Paki Talibans are not'! Is there any other reason left for the downfall of this nation?
my heart goes out to these families may Allah grant them paradise and yes our government and the security agencies have utterly failed to protect its citizens from these criminals.
I condemn these attacks by LJ, Taleban and out similar notorious outfits who are cancer in Pakistan's society. People need to be more organized and vigilant against such plots to protect their land and people. Government is as usual useless because of so many reasons.
i am a hazara and my family members have been a victim of talibanisation also, here in qta its getting difficult for us to feel there is any civic sense that remains, its blood shed every where, people are scared of moving freely, i always discuss with my friends how Quetta used to be 15 years back n recall the special memories of my child hood playing around but things have changed as time has passed, the cantt area where once no one would ask what someone was doing over there, has now become like a border crossing b/w any two countries no euporean border crossing would be as strict as going into Qta cantt…….its true that media is completly silent on this issue except talat hussain, however i everyday pray to Allah that He punishes and brings an end to the brutality of these people who have no good for this world and that to kill anyone is the only art they have learned so far as Islam is too difficult for them to follow. May Allah guide us to the true path and give Pakistani nation the strength to fight these infidels.
These people are sick and have no regard for human life. They are not muslims or Pakistanis. Pakistan needs a strong leader to pull it together. I say the whole country get behind Imran Khan. Only if we get behind the right person can we sort our country. Anyone is welcomed to live and settle in Punjab. No one should be persecuted in any part of Pakistan no matter who they are. These ethnic and secterian divides must stop. You only have one life, live and let live. Pakistan Zindabad.
The murders of innocent people is not allowed in Islam. These murders are not followers of the true religion which is Islam. Indeed they are the ones who give Islam a bad name. Moreover those of us who keep quiet about this bloodshed, are equally guilty. For our silence means support for these murderers.
I wonder when and how this blood letting will stop.Police doesnot care, government seems to be a silent spectator,the much hyped media seems to have gone blind and the poor and helpless people are dying.Is this Pakistan or lawlesstan?