Genghis Khan's Descendants: Pakistan’s War Against The Hazara Analysis

By PALASH R. GHOSH: Subscribe to Palash's RSS feed

June 29, 2012 1:40 PM EDT

One of Pakistan’s leading politicians, former cricket star and chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Imran Khan, party condemned an attack on a bus that killed fifteen Shia Muslims from Iran on their way to the city of Quetta in Baluchistan.


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(Photo: Wikipedia)
Hazara man

The victims were of the Hazara ethnic group, a people who live in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and have suffered a wave of killings over the past six months in Pakistan.

Hazara, who are distinguishable by their Mongolian features (they are believed to be the descendants of the soldiers of Genghis Khan), have been shot at, bombed at and stabbed in what appears to be a coordinated campaign of violence against this small ethnic group in Pakistan.

Since 2001, Pakistani media estimates, at least 800 Hazara have been slaughtered in the country.

Khan blamed the government for the worsening security situation in Baluchistan, warning that the province could sink into chaos. Expressing his condolences and solidarity with the Hazara people, Khan demanded that authorities punish Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), an outlawed Islamic militant organization that took responsibility for the latest killings of Hazara.

LeJ has even written a letter to the Hazara community, warning them to leave Pakistan by the end of 2012.

The motivations for the mass murder of Hazara in Pakistan are complex and confounding. Some believe it is a case of fanatic Sunni Muslims killing Shias, other think it is simply a matter of ethnic prejudice, but some Hazara leaders say they are being wiped out due to geo-strategic issues engulfing both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“The Hazaras are being systematically killed because they are anti-Taliban,” said Tahir Khan Hazara, a political activist.

However, Baluchistan is also involved in its own insurgency movement, which the Pakistani government had brutally sought to crush. Some Hazara think that Pakistani security forces are killing Hazara to camouflage their persecution of Baloch nationalists.

Zaman Dehqanzada of the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) alleges that Pakistani security forces are murdering Hazara to punish them for refusing the fight the Balochs.

“We are not going to destroy our relations with our brothers in Baluchistan,” he said.
(The founder of HDP, Hussain Ali Yousufi, was himself murdered by LeJ on in early 2009.)

As Farsi-speaking Shias, some in Pakistan suspect the Hazara of being spies for Iran and perhaps conspiring to engineer a Shia revolution in overwhelmingly Sunni Pakistan.

Hazara suffered immense loss of life in Afghanistan when it was under Taliban control – tens of thousands were massacred. Taliban viewed the Hazara as loyal to the Northern Alliance government which strongly opposed the Taliban.

The chaos in Afghanistan forced tens of thousands of Hazara to flee to neighboring Pakistan and Iran.

Their lives in Pakistan are one of poverty and despair. Accroding to the Joshua Project, the Hazara are “looked down upon and despised by other ethnic groups [in Pakistan]. They are some of the poorest people of Pakistan and suffer an alarming array of health problems; eye diseases, leprosy, and tuberculosis are very common.”

International Business Times

Hope fades away for Hazaras of Pakistan; Saleem Javed

Saleem Javed | DAWN.COM | 5 hours ago




Men belonging to the Hazara community mourn the killing of their relatives at a hospital in Quetta on April 9, 2012, following an attack by gunmen. — File photo by AFP

“At least 60 people belonging to Hazara community living in Quetta have been killed in targeted attacks, including suicide, remote-controlled and timer device bombings and firing,” says a report published in this newspaper, following a brutal attack on Shia pilgrims belonging to the Hazara community.

Thursday’s bomb attack in the Hazarganji area on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Balochistan was not the first such attack of the year. Not even the first of the month. The Hazara community has been targeted, with great impunity, by outlawed militant organisations on at least six occasions in the current year. While all attacks have claimed precious lives, one of worst attacks against the community came last September, when a bus carrying Hazara passengers was stopped by assailants heavily armed with rocket launchers and Kalashnikovs. They identified Hazara men, took them off the bus and slaughtered them one by one within half a kilometre from a security check post. A similar incident was repeated a few days later in Akhtarabad area of Quetta. Some unconfirmed reports say “over 800 Hazaras have been killed in 24 incidents of mass-murder and 131 targeted ambushes since 2001.”

Murderous motives
Responsibility for most of these attacks has been claimed by outlawed group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, who have gone as far in their hate preach as declaring the community “wajib-ul-qatl” or deserving of death in their edicts handed out in the Balochistan province. Moreover, the community has been warned that its settlements in Hazara Town and on Alamdar Road will be transformed into graveyards as the war against them continues, according to a column published in this newspaper.... Continue Reading.... 

Afghan artist Khadim Ali

Born in 1978 in Quetta (Pakistan), he lives in Sydney and Bamiyan.

His work: The Haunted Lotus, 2011–2012 (Gouache, ink, and gold leaf on wasli paper)
Ali, who trained in miniature painting, has roots in Bamiyan where the colossal sixth-century Buddha statues were destroyed by the Taliban (2001).

In the style of Indian Mughal miniatures, Ali has since 2007 worked to explore and update the Shahnamah. In his paintings, the classical hero Rustam is a horned demon, with a long beard reminiscent of those worn by Taliban fighters.

In Kassel, Ali is exhibiting four miniature paintings to explore the mythic tales of the Shahnamah by Firdausi in a contemporary context. He is also holding a seminar for children in Bamiyan, which focuses on the lost art of storytelling.

Deccan Chronicle 

Editorial: Another Tragedy in Hazar Ganji

Added by Admin on June 29, 2012.

The sectarian war in Balochistan is getting uglier by the day as Sunni militants continue to devise new strategies every day to target members of the Shia community. Despite religious motivations, these attacks frequently lead to attacks on Hazara ethnic community. Thus, one should not mince words in describing this phenomenon as a blatant religious and ethnic cleansing. The tragic killing of another 13 innocent Shia pilgrims on Thursday in Hazar Ganji once again increases the fears of the Shia community and calls into question the government’s commitment to protect the people’s lives....Continue Reading.... 

Jang Urdu; Attack on Pilgrims' Bus

ادامه ترور هزاره ها در پاکستان و سکوت حکومت

دويچه وله دری / منطقه

سال ها است که اقلیت شیعه مذهب هزاره در پاکستان هدف حمله افراطیان سنی هستند و دولت پاکستان کاری برای آن ها انجام نمی دهد. اقارب و بازماندگان قربانیان در اعتراض به این کشتارها، چند باری به خیابان ها ریخته اند.

در تازه ترین مورد، روز پنج شنبه (8 سرطان 1391/ 28 جون 2012) یک بس که زایران شیعه مذهب را از ایران به کویته انتقال می داد هدف حمله قرار گرفت. در این حمله، 13 تن از هزاره های شیعه کشته شدند و 25 تن دیگر زخم برداشتند.

رمضان، دکاندار 32 ساله در کویته سعی می کند آرامش خود را حفظ کند: «آن ها دو ماه پیش به دکان ما و سه تن دیگر حمله کردند. مهاجمین سوار بر سه موترسایکل بودند. من آن زمان در دکان نبودم. بعد از این که به من تلیفون شد، برگشتم و جسد برادر کلانم را روی زمین دیدم».

«به هزاره ها در سطح بین المللی نیز توجهی نمی شود»

به گفته رمضان، تنها جرم برادرش هزاره بودن او بود. همین برای قاتلان دلیل کافی بوده که پدر سه کودک را به قتل برسانند. این واقعه در کویته، مرکز ایالت بلوچستان پاکستان، یک مورد استثنایی نیست. بیش از ده سال است که هزاره ها در پاکستان در تعقیب افراط گرایان هستند. 700 تن از آن ها تا به حال در حمله های سنی های افراطی جان باخته و هزاران تن زخمی شده اند.

نفرت افراط گرایان سنی مذهب

هزاره ها در افغانستان از نظر تعداد سومین گروه قومی هستند، اما آن ها به دلیل تفاوت مذهبی و قومی همیشه مورد تبعیض قرار گرفته اند. بسیاری آنها در دوره های مختلف زمانی مجبور به فرار به ایران و پاکستان شدند. همچنین جنگ های افغانستان از سال 1979 بسیاری از آن ها را مجبور به فرار از این کشور کرد. تقریبا نیم میلیون هزاره در پاکستان زندگی می کنند. بیشتر آن ها ساکن کویته هستند.

به خصوص گروه سنی افراطی لشکر جنگوی به کشتن هزاره ها مشهور است. نعمت الله ابراهیمی، دانشمند علوم سیاسی از کابل که خود هزاره است، در مورد افزایش خشونت علیه این قوم می گوید: «من بین سال های 1997 و 1999 در کویته شاهد تبلیغات منفی افراطی علیه شیعیان بودم. اما این گروه های افراطی آن زمان به عنوان متحدین طالبان متوجه جنگ در افغانستان بودند. سپس آن ها پس از سال 2001 به پاکستان برگشتند و حمله ها علیه هزاره ها را افزایش دادند».

کابل و برخی ولایت های دیگر افغانستان نیز شاهد تظاهرات در اعتراض به کشتار هزاره ها در کویته بوده است.

در مجموع خشونت ها با انگیزه مذهبی بین اکثریت سنی و شیعیان در پاکستان پس از دهه80 میلادی به شدت افزایش یافته است. یوخن هیپلر، دانشمند علوم سیاسی در آلمان در این باره می گوید: «البته این خشونت ها متوجه اقلیت هزاره نیز می شود که نه تنها شیعه مذهب هستند، بلکه از نظر قومی نیز از ظاهر شان شناخته می شوند. به این ترتیب آن ها یک اقلیت مضاعف هستند، مذهبی و قومی».

فعالان هزاره، برعلاوه گروه های افراطی پاکستانی، سازمان استخبارات این کشور (آی اس آی) را نیز عامل این خشونت ها می دانند. حکومت پاکستان این اتهام ها را رد می کند. عبدالخالق بشردوست، عضو حکومت ایالتی در بلوچستان، متهمین را در جای دیگری می بیند: «من فکر نمی کنم که سازمان استخبارات (آی اس آی) عامل کشتار هزاره ها باشد. بیشتر شرکت امنیتی خصوصی بلک واتر است که می خواهد ایران شیعه مذهب را علیه پاکستانی های سنی تحریک کند و به این دلیل دستور قتل شیعیان را می دهد».

حکومت پاکستان چشم هایش را می بندد

کارشناسان ادعاهای مقام های پاکستانی را جدی نمی گیرند. زیگرید کریگ، از سازمان عفو بین الملل در آلمان می گوید که حکومت پاکستان گناه را به گردن عوامل خارجی می اندازد. به گفته او پاکستان تمایل چندانی به کمک به مردم هزاره ندارد: «حکومت این کشور هیچ کاری انجام نمی دهد. به دلیل منازعه استقلال طلبی بلوچ ها، سربازان پاکستانی در بلوچستان مستقر هستند. اما برای هزاره ها هیچ کاری انجام نمی دهند».

در پاکستان حزب پشتونخوا ملی عوامی در اعتراض به کتشار هزاره ها در کویته و پشتون ها در کراچی تظاهرات کردند.

زیگرید کریگ می گوید که اسلام آباد در قبال هزاره ها موقفی اهانت آمیز و نیش دار را پیش گرفته است. چند هفته پیش نواب اسلم رایزانی، رییس حکومت ایالت بلوچستان، با لحنی بسیار تمسخر آمیز در مورد هزاره ها صحبت کرد. به نقل از روزنامه پاکستانی نیوزلاین، این سیاستمدار پاکستانی در یک سخنرانی گفته است، هزاره ها بهتر است این قدر مبالغه نکنند. درغیر این صورت او می تواند برای شان یک محموله دستمال کاغذی روان کند (که اشک های خود را پاک کنند).

اما زیگرید کریگ اذعان می کند که به هزاره ها در سطح بین المللی نیز توجهی نمی شود. حتی عفو بین الملل نیز تا به حال تنها یک گزارش در مورد هزاره ها نشر کرده است. اما در مقابل به مبارزه بلوچ ها برای کسب استقلال در سطح بین المللی توجه می شود. برای مشکلات و دردهای رمضان دکاندار در کویته گوش شنوایی نیست. او تنها یکی از صدها هزاره ای است که اعضای خانواده اش را در این خشونت ها از دست داده است.

وصلت حسرت نظیمی/ مهرنوش انتظاری

ویراستار: عارف فرهمن

Deutsche Welle

‘Ethnic cleansing of Hazaras going on in systematic manner’

Mumtaz AlviFriday, June 29, 2012
From Print Edition

ISLAMABAD: Every month around 50-60 members of the Hazara community are either gunned down or killed in bomb blasts, mostly within the precincts of Quetta city, claim the head of a political party and a legislator.

During the last five years, as many as 50,000 Hazaras have left Balochistan; a majority of them have managed to take ‘shelter’ in other countries, and nearly 300 lost their lives as some of the boats they were on board capsized. Meanwhile, some have fled to Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) President, Abdul Khaliq Hazara, while talking to The News claimed that in a systematic manner, ethnic cleansing of Hazaras was on and has dramatically intensified since 2008 onwards. “We don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, as on the one hand we are losing our dear ones while on the other, the state and its institutions have failed to fulfil their constitutional obligations and virtually turned their back on us,” he charged.

He said after finding no security and protection from the provincial government and its related departments, the trauma-hit people had been left with the only option to hand themselves over to the Arabian Sea waters.

Asked what role his party and other political parties, particularly in the province, could play to defuse the situation, the HDP chief said things had gone out of the political parties’ hands, as those behind this gory phenomenon enjoyed the full protection of certain forces. “Everybody knows it,” was his terse reply when asked who these forces are.

He said a deliberate attempt was being made to give this gory act a colour of sectarian strife, as occasionally, mosques and seminaries were also targeted in Balochistan’s provincial capital.

An upright PPP legislator, Syed Nasir Ali Shah, who recently declined to vote for Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, saying he could not repeat the sin he had committed in 2008 by casting his vote for Yusuf Raza Gilani, when contacted, billed the seething violence against Hazara community as a result of multi-faceted factors.

One of the factors, he pointed out, was the release of a hardened terrorist, who had been released a few months back, and he was now free to spread venom to trigger sectarian unrest: he referred to a June 19 gathering in which he again asked people to get ready to target Muslims.

“Is there anyone, who can stop this person? Is there any institution noticing what poison he is spreading here and there,” Nasir Shah, who also belongs to Hazara community, wondered.

The outspoken lawmaker from Quetta contended that people had been left with hardly any other option but to feel increasingly insecure and depressed after a prime minister who called himself a representative of 180 million people, carelessly remarked during an interview with CNN recently that no one had stopped people from leaving Pakistan when told that one-third of Pakistanis wanted to leave the country due to bad governance and other problems. Nasir Shah noted this answer by Gilani had stunned the CNN journalist.

He said the rulers had miserably failed to ensure protection to life of people what to talk of safeguarding their rights. He lamented Pakistan not only stood alone today globally but also regionally, as all neighbours, including, Afghanistan, Iran, India and even Russia were not happy with it due to its policies.

The legislator called for a complete review of Pakistan’s interior and foreign policies, with particular reference to Afghanistan.

“It is because of those disastrous policies that today people are being killed in suicide attacks and blasts while the state institutions are hibernating. Killers are on the rampage without any fear of being arrested and proceeded against. We must open our eyes wide before it is too late and I guess, it is already too late,” he maintained.

A senior official of the Balochistan Home Department, when approached on phone, conceded that they were faced with a complex situation, as not only local but external factors were also to be blamed for the wave of killings in Quetta. He also said that local trouble-makers enjoyed patronage that needed to be handled now without any political consideration.

The News