From Bamiyan to Balochistan: The Hazaras of a ‘thousand destinations’

I was in the Taliban headquarters in Kandahar, Afghanistan when the hilly region of Bamiyan fell to them in the late 90’s. The cultural center of the Hazara community became a site of mayhem as houses were burnt, hundreds killed, thousands displaced as they fled north, and giant 6th century rock-carved statues of the Buddha were destroyed. Amid the Taliban celebrations against the ‘enemies of Islam,’ their leader in Bamiyan, Mullah Muttamaen, told me it was a fitting retribution for Hazaras siding with the Northern Alliance against the Taliban. “They fought against us and deserved punishment.” As global outrage mounted against Mullah Omer’s war against “idolatry,” and attacks by the allied forces coalition accelerated, many Taliban fighters took shelter in bordering Waziristan and Balochistan. As the Hazaras in Afghanistan trickled back to their homes, they had no idea how this spillover would unfold for the Hazaras in Balochistan...Continue Reading....