BBC; 'Hell on Earth': Inside Quetta's Hazara community

Ruqsana Bibi at the cemetary in Quetta where her sons are buried

By Mobeen Azhar

BBC World Service

30 April 2013 Last updated at 20:00 ET

For years Quetta in Pakistan has rarely been visited by foreign media organisations, as it is considered too dangerous. Now a World Service investigation has uncovered the reality of life for the city's persecuted Hazara Shia community in what some describe as "hell on earth".

On 10 January 2013, a suicide bomber walked into a packed snooker hall in Quetta and detonated an explosive device, marking the beginning of what would become the bloodiest day in Pakistan's recent history.

Eight people died in the initial blast and the area soon became flooded with people trying to help. A second bomb planted on an ambulance was then detonated.

Listen to the full report on Assignment on the BBC World Service on Thursday May 2 and on BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents on the same day at 11:00am.

The attacks killed more than 120 people, most of them from the Hazara Shia community, in a campaign strategically planned to inflict maximum carnage.

Quetta's Hazara community is on the front line of Pakistan's battle with violent extremism.

Ruqsana Bibi lost three of her four sons on that day. The walls of her modest home are filled with family pictures. She sits on the floor holding three frames. Each contains a picture of one of the children she lost.

"I ran to the mosque barefoot and I saw the bodies of my three sons. I kissed their faces. I carried them to the cemetery myself. The eldest was Khadim Husain. I said to him: 'You must take care of your brothers in the grave.' I don't know what happened to me then. People took me home."

Mrs Bibi says her grandsons, aged nine and five, are afraid that they too will be "martyred" one day.

"They say: 'Who are these people killing us?' Who are these people that are stirring up trouble between Sunnis and Shias? It didn't used to be like this."

Mrs Bibi's family, like almost all of the victims of the Quetta attacks, are Hazara.

Hazaras are ethnically Mongolian, with oriental features and light skin, different from much of Pakistan's population... Continue Reading...