Hazara people are no aliens; Tariq Baloch

From the Newspaper 

THIS is with reference to Irfan Hussain’s eye-opening letter (April 18) in which he has rightly explained the agony of the ethnic community in Balochistan.

Hazaras claim their legacy to 13th century warrior Changez Khan; therefore, they add the title ‘Changezi’ with their names.

The community has been continuously migrating from Afghan province Bamian and its surroundings, in the north of Kabul, where they held ancestral land all the way up to Balochistan.

The first blow came to them when Khan Abdur Rehman of Kabul started butchering them on sectarian grounds in the late 19th century.

Major groups started settling in parts of Balochistan. However, several families migrated during the 1960s and 1970s. The migration still continues as families are moving to Karachi and abroad.

As an enterprising and united community, they have excelled in major services and business opportunities in the last 30 years or so. General Musa Khan is an example who remained Governor of Balochistan for many years. I can remember my childhood days of the late 1980s when I saw this gentleman walking alone along Zarghoon Road. This was his simplicity and genuineness as he was also a tribal elder. He was a jewel of Balochistan.

The Hazara community enjoys good relations with the Pashtun and especially with the Baloch due to their linguistic similarities.

The only negative events I remember were the July 1984 one (where the Hazara were entangled with police and FC) and the one in the 1990s in which it had a conflict with Pashtun groups.

It is difficult to ascertain any responsibility on any one group for both events, as some foreign hands were playing their games in those times and still do.

Although the Balochistan government is incapable of staving off conflict due to corruption, I still see a foreign hand in the situation faced by the Hazara in Balochistan. The Hazaras are jewels of Balochistan and sons of the soil.

I request the authorities concerned to take stringent action against sectarian groups.

TARIQ BALOCH
Karachi

DAWN 

Persecuted Hazaras rally for peace

At least 29 Hazara Shias have been killed and scores wounded in Quetta in the last two weeks, in the recent spate of violence against the minority community. Last week, thousands of people gathered in the capital of the Balochistan province to protest against yet another surge in sectarian violence.

The April 13 protests, organized by the Hazara Democratic Party, were called after four people were killed in two separate attacks on Iqbal Road and Abdul Sattar Road in Quetta on April 12.

Thousands of people from the Hazara ethnic minority community were chanting slogans against the local government and law enforcement agencies demanding a crackdown on terrorist groups who were targeting the 600,000 Hazaras of Quetta. Protesters also called for increased government protection for the predominantly Shia Muslim community...Continue Reading...

Crime Scene Apr 18, 2012 SAMAA TV 1/2

Quetta: 2 Hazara men killed; FC nabs attackers after a chase

Updated on: Saturday, April 21, 2012 2:09:41 PM




Staff Report
QUETTA: At least two people hailing from Hazara community of the city, were killed in a firing incident this morning near TB Sanatorium at Barori Road, SAMAA reports Saturday.

According to the FC sources, some miscreants gunned down two Hazara people near TB Sanatorium on Barori Road this morning.

The FC personnel soon arrived on the spot and gave the running saboteurs chase. Unable to steer clear of the forces, the miscreants tried to take shelter in nearby houses; however, they were caught up by the FC men, who arrested them along with the firearms.

The miscreants were handed to police for further interrogations.

According to the FC spokesman, eyewitnesses also identified the three captured miscreants. SAMAA

کوئٹہ میں ہزارہ برادری کے دو افراد قتل؛ تین ملزمان اسلحہ سمیت گرفتار

Updated on: 1:37:15 PM ہفتہ, 21 اپریل 2012




اسٹاف رپورٹ
کوئٹہ: شہر میں ہزارہ برادری کے دو افراد کے قتل کے واقعہ کے بعد ایف سی نے تعاقب کرتے ہوئے تین ملزمان کو اسلحہ سمیت گرفتار کرلیا۔۔

ایف سی ترجمان کے مطابق، بروری روڈ پر ٹی بی سینیٹوریم کے قریب نامعلوم افراد نے فائرنگ کرکے دو افراد کو قتل کردیا تھا۔

واقعہ کے بعد ایف سی کے اہلکار موقع پر پہنچ گئے اورملزمان کا تعاقب کیا جنہوں نے قریبی گھروں میں پناہ لینے کی کوشش کی تاہم ایف سی نے انہیں اسلحہ سمیت گرفتار کرلیا اور مزید تفتیش کے لئے پولیس کے حوالے کردیا۔

ایف سی ترجمان کے مطابق گرفتار ہونےوالے تین ملزمان کی عینی شاہدین نے بھی شاخت کی ہے ۔۔ سماء

Under Siege of Terror: The Shia Hazara of Pakistan

Posted by: Rafia Zakaria, April 19, 2012 at 12:04 PM

Amnesty International

Pakistani Shiite Muslims protest after the sectarian killings in Quetta on April 14, 2012. Eight people, including seven Hazara, were gunned down in separate sectarian targeted incidents. (Photo: BANARAS KHAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Sectarian violence promoted by religious extremists is not new to Pakistan, but the latest series of brutal attacks on the otherwise peaceful Hazara people has reached a breaking point in recent weeks. Despite the fact thatnearly 30 people have died in the past two weeks, the Government of Pakistan seems incapable – if not unwilling – to step in to stop this siege of terror.

The situation in the Balochistan province, located in south-west Pakistan has always been complex with a number of different ethnic groups, a seccesionist movement and various Taliban leaders all vying for power. Things have become even worse in the last few years with escalating tensions between the United States and Pakistan over the NATO supply route leading to even more unrest in Quetta, Balochistan’s capital city and bringing an onslaught of tragedy to the Hazara who live there.

For hundreds of years, the Hazara people of Pakistan had lived in the shadows of the low mountains of Quetta. Located on the border between Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the city has always been a crossroads of goods and people. Belonging to the minority Shia sect of Islam and easily distinguishable from the other ethnic groups of the region because of their Central Asian features, the Hazara are an easy target.

In particular, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a sectarian, militant group have been targeting the Hazara minority in Balochistan in a series of brazen attacks. Last September, religious processions organized by the community were targeted twice. Then came the brutal assault on a bus carrying Shia Hazara pilgrims to Quetta. All the men and boys aboard were taken out of the bus, lined up and shot, as their mothers, wives and sisters watched from inside. The assailants were unafraid, and had insured that the highway was blocked on both ends when they conducted that ambush. Later that evening, two more Hazara men were killed after being dragged out of their cars at a traffic light in Quetta. The total death toll for the day was over thirty dead and scores more injured.

The killing has continued since and has taken on a frenetic pace this past week. Since March 26, 2012, nearly 30 people have died in targeted attacks on the Hazara Shia. Six were shot dead execution style while drinking tea at one of the many roadside stalls in Quetta. The attack on March 29, again involved a hijacked bus whose Hazara passengers, including a woman, were singled out and then summarily murdered with automatic weapons.

Recent days have brought even more attacks, with the hapless members of the community taking to the streets of Quetta, before an apathetic provincial administration and the wrath of terrorist groups that can kill with impunity.

According to a report produced by the community, local authorities in Balochistan have taken only superficial measures or none at all to stop the killings or bring their killers to justice. Public religious edicts issued by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members and labeling the extermination of Hazara as a religious duty continue to be distributed freely in mosques, via handbill and even text message in Quetta.

The volatile mix of apathy and terror is exacerbated by the general unrest and lawlessness in Baluchistan. Unlike other nationalist forces in the province, the Hazara are patriotic Pakistanis unwilling to support any secessionist causes, which makes their situation even more precarious.

In their own words; the Shia Hazara of Quetta are a peace love community under siege from a collusion of forces; the brazen Lashkar-e-Jhangvi whose assailants are killing them at will, an apathetic Balochistan Government that does not see them as worth protecting, and the silence of everyone else who is watching them die.

Lacking political connections, resources and unwilling to take on the same tactics of violence and intimidation used by all those around them; the onlyrecourse that the Hazara of Quetta can hope for is that the world who hears of them, does not think they are too small, too unknown and too helpless to be allowed to exist.

Follow Rafia on Twitter @rafiazakaria

Amnesty International 

Target killer arrested by Young Hazara Boyzzz.

Latest update from Quetta Pakistan:

Two Hazaras were shot this morning while they were on a bike. One of them died on the spot other was severely injured and was taken to the hospital. After an operation of Pakistani Police and Frontier Corps forces with the help of Hazara Boys, they were able to capture the terrorists while terrorists were trying to escape after committing the murders.

 Just after the incident another prominent political person known as Syed Mohammad Ali among the Hazara neighborhoods of Quetta was ambushed in which he was injured. The Hazara boys have done a great job in assisting the police capture the terrorists. The boys were smart in filming the capture and taking pictures of terrorists while they were being captured. Hats off to you all. There is news that one of the terrorist vanished all of a sudden, other is in local police station of Quetta. Once again, great job Hazara brothers! you are the only hope of our people in Quetta Pakistan.

Samaa TV also reported the incident of arrests

  This is an open question to Security Agencies.... If unarmed young boys can arrest Target Killers red handed, why then security forces have failed to do so for a decade????