Hazara killings

| 17th January, 2013
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THIS refers to recent killings of Hazaras which is the worst blow to the community in history. We, Hazaras, now have to fear our shadows as there is no visible difference between a friend and a foe.

It would not be surprising if a friend targets you. The same happened on Jan 10 in Quetta when an Edhi ambulance, which is supposed to take the injured to the hospital, was filled with explosives and detonated.

The blast was so powerful that it shook buildings lying in a radius of two kilometres. My house is about 500 meters away from where the blast occurred. But the blast shook our house so badly that I thought as if it had occurred on our own street.

I ran outside madly because my brother who had just arrived from Lahore was missing. There were no mobile phone signals. I found my brother alive but there were many families who lost their loved ones in the blast.

The atmosphere was full of melancholic faces and people were rushing from one Imambargah to the other and one hospital to the other to find their missing loved ones.

The depressing and emotional scenes pained the hearts as relatives of victims tried to find their loved ones. An old woman was trying to find her son who was missing since last night. In short, one can say it was doomsday.

This incident will be considered a security failure on the part of police officials. In my opinion, putting the blame on the police is totally unjustified, because the police are never meant or trained to tackle the matters pertaining to national security.

The responsibility totally falls on the shoulders of intelligence agencies and the army. Owing to negligence of such institutions the burden on the incompetent police increases and the situation gets from bad to worse.

If I say no institution is performing its duties with responsibility, it would not be an exaggeration. If the customs department restricts the smuggling of non – customs – paid vehicles, if the FIA stops the infiltration of unregistered perpetrators and the FC and if the army puts constraints over free movement of explosives from borders, then in no way such incidents would occur.

As a result, the police will perform their assigned duties of checking street crimes and other crimes against life and property with ease.

The real misery is that all of these departments have no coordination and even some of them look down upon each other and consider it a matter of ego.

In a nutshell, time is running out and people have lost their trust in the government. The rampant extremism and loss of lives are testing their patience and they are questioning their allegiance to the Constitution. God forbid, a day may come when they take the law into their hands by saying they do not trust security agencies.

TAQI RAMZAN
Quetta

An experience

WHILE I was sitting in my office, my cellphone beeped. I picked it up and opened the inbox. In reply to my text asking about if he was all right, my Hazara teacher, also a well-known Persian poet named Ali Baba, said: “God saved me, I was there. But I lost my friend Irfan.” My heart sank. To make sure, I asked: “Irfan? The same one I contacted a year ago.” He said: “Yes.”

I was shocked. I was about to text him too. He was Irfan Khudi Ali, a human rights and peace activist from the Hazara community, Quetta. He was a young, bright and lovely fellow. How did this happen suddenly? I could not focus on my work. I recalled the year 2011 when I contacted him for the first time to get some help for my research work on Balochistan.

He provided me one of his research papers on human rights. There were many occasions when he was ready to help me in the best possible way. We used to talk mostly via text messages. I remember the longest conversation we had was on Oct 30, 2011, the day when Imran Khan held his Lahore rally at Minar-i-Pakistan.

The focus on our discussion remained the role of Imran Khan and his party in the current political situation of Pakistan. After a long discussion we ended and said goodbye.

I could never imagine that it would be my last conversation with him. Although I never met this brave man, it was always a pleasure to talk to him. It is hard to bear the loss of not only the Hazara community but also of all who are killed in Pakistan.

KHADEEJAH
Lahore

COMMENTS

  1. Dr Tariq Ali
      January 18, 2013 11:35 am

    http://dawn.com/2012/04/22/hazara-people-are-no-aliens/

    • mazharuddin
        January 18, 2013 2:30 pm

      Unfortunately our socalled doctors, religious scholars, politicians and responsible government agencies have little perception of the matter. No one able to address root causes and discuss such religious activities like processions, congregations and false stating historical events on media that have no credible evidence as well as against natural justice that causing spread hatred. What happened to all religious scholars, thinkers and other responsible persons that overlook several hundreds human losses each year due to sectarian killing that continued since about one thousand years?. Should such religious activities be observed to that no one has the right to challenge and ask the logic for it? All have a peculiar mindset controlling state and religious affairs and the writers on this topic too. Not ridiculous? I hope someone will come ahead. It show me a way to strike Qamah (small sword) on my head and fall asleep.

      • S.A. Hyder, Ph.D.
          January 18, 2013 9:48 pm

        All may have a typical mindset or not, but you surely have an ultra-typical (almost deviant) mindset. You say there is no credible evidence for the historical events that are related to in these religious activities. Who are you trying to fool? Go and read the history books to enlighten your mind. You will find out who did what to whom and what all this is about.
        Lastly, if some one beats his chest why does it give heebee jeebees to you? Are you afraid that the world will ultimately come to know the bases of all this? Please do not try to twist history. Facts are there for any one (including you) interested in finding them.
        Have you ever heard the word TOLERANCE? Go and look for its meaning in a dictionary and start practicing it. There will always be difference of opinions and beliefs between two people. That is the way we are created.We just have to learn to live with these differences and appreciate the similarities. If we Muslims would practice tolerance and learn to live and let live, we would be out of this self created mess. Some thing we are always eager to blame others for.
        Lastly, calling a spade a spade, if it is not a spade, will not make it a spade. However, not calling a spade a spade when it is a spade will not change it to any thing else either.

  2. Yaqoot Mir
      January 18, 2013 1:56 am

    And still no talk to going after the so called ‘banned’ LET…sorry to say but I guess our enemies were right all along when they complained about our security setup being hand in hand with these terrorists outfits….very sorry state of affairs in our country when will this end? what will it take to help the army brass realize that the organizations which they secretly sanction are loyal to NO ONE.

  3. Asad
      January 17, 2013 5:33 pm

    No one can ever wipe the Shias in general and Hazaras in particular, from the face of this earth. They can try all they can (which they have been doing for centuries) but they are doomed. What’s happening to Hazaras today in Quetta is nothing compared to what these brave souls have endured in Afghanistan. I think the only difference between oppressor and oppressed in this battle is that the latters courage has more power than the former’s Kalashnikovs and explosives. Hazaras must not put down their weapon of courage and make all efforts to equip their community with quality education.

  4. Hasan
      January 17, 2013 5:32 pm

    Our intelligence agencies are eithewr failed to tackle their duties or they have allegiances with terrorists.

  5. Ali
      January 17, 2013 1:29 pm

    Good to know few reasons that why Police department is incompetent,thanks bro for voice of voiceless. khadeejah: same feeling with me for Khudi,he is not just for hazara community but for whole pakistan.He is still alive among us and we must promote his struggle among new generations as the pakistan needs the most.anyhow thanks for blowing my heart’s voice and pray for more in future for both of u.

    • khadija
        January 17, 2013 2:16 pm

      thank u Ali. yes ur right, he is immortal in our hearts.. i pray for u too

    • Taqi Ramzan
        January 18, 2013 1:30 am

      it is good that dawn has given a platform for the voice of the voiceless and the thing which forced me to write about this incident was this forceful and charismatic character of
      irfan ali khudi,,,,and its amazing and surprising that it is printed along side khadija’s letter about irfan,,,i had had few sittings with him but knew him from long ,,,,,,and God knows that how much i have wept for him ,,whenever i have a glimpse of him in one of his pics i cant stop my tears rolling down my eyes,,,,yesterday my colleague told me that irfan and few of their friends had arranged a picnic for sunday ,,,,but alas that irfan is no more ,,,he showed me the money irfan had paid for the picnic spendings ,,,,,,,my heart came to my mouth and i wept alot for this innocent soul,,,,rest in peace brother ,,,,and God may bestow on us the power that we could carry on his mission of peace…………..

  6. Dr Tariq Ali
      January 17, 2013 12:04 pm

    Very Sad Indeed, I have gone through an article on Irfan Yesterday. It is really Sad. He was real Gem of Hazara Community as I mentioend them in my Article some time back in Dawn.