Friday, June 29, 2012
Hazara community being targeted in Quetta attack: Imran
By: Online | June 29, 2012, 9:25 pm
Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Friday termed the barbaric incident of Quetta is part of the systematic wave of violent attacks against the Hazara community. He strongly condemned attack on a Quetta bound bus carrying Shia pilgrims from Iran, which led to loss of 13 innocent lives. Terming the attack barbaric, Imran Khan said that the incident is part of the systematic wave of violent attacks against the Hazara community. Atleast 60 people belonging to the Hazara community have been brutally killed during the past six months. Imran Khan stated that there could be serious repercussions if the dangerous trend of increasing frequency and intensity of violent attacks against the Hazara Community is not reversed. The security situation of Balochistan is extremely uncertain and continued attacks against a particular community can push the province into a state of complete chaos. Constant failure to ensure security of the Hazara community despite loss of so many innocent lives is criminal negligence on part of the government. The situation demands the government to undertake emergency measures to stop violent attacks against the community, he added. Imran Khan demanded stern action against the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has openly claimed responsibility of this barbaric attack. The PTI Chairman expressed complete solidarity with the Hazara community and conveyed deepest condolences to the bereaved families.
Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Friday termed the barbaric incident of Quetta is part of the systematic wave of violent attacks against the Hazara community. He strongly condemned attack on a Quetta bound bus carrying Shia pilgrims from Iran, which led to loss of 13 innocent lives. Terming the attack barbaric, Imran Khan said that the incident is part of the systematic wave of violent attacks against the Hazara community. Atleast 60 people belonging to the Hazara community have been brutally killed during the past six months. Imran Khan stated that there could be serious repercussions if the dangerous trend of increasing frequency and intensity of violent attacks against the Hazara Community is not reversed. The security situation of Balochistan is extremely uncertain and continued attacks against a particular community can push the province into a state of complete chaos. Constant failure to ensure security of the Hazara community despite loss of so many innocent lives is criminal negligence on part of the government. The situation demands the government to undertake emergency measures to stop violent attacks against the community, he added. Imran Khan demanded stern action against the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has openly claimed responsibility of this barbaric attack. The PTI Chairman expressed complete solidarity with the Hazara community and conveyed deepest condolences to the bereaved families.
Another sectarian massacre
By Editorial
Published: June 29, 2012
A paramilitary soldier stands guard near a damaged bus destroyed in a bomb attack in the outskirts of Quetta June 28, 2012. PHOTO: REUTERS
The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, whose multiple-homicide leader was released this year from a prison in Lahore has killed another 14 Hazara Shia citizens in a bus carrying 50 passengers on its way from Taftan, a border town between Iran and Pakistan. This is the third time since last year that pilgrims to Iran have been killed, to say nothing of the random extermination of the community that began in the 1990s, when the Hazaras of Quetta started being targeted by terrorists affiliated with the al Qaeda. This has gone on in parallel with attacks on the Shia community in the Kurram Agency, Gilgit-Baltistan and some cities of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa bordering Fata.
Adding to the shame for Pakistan, a large number of Pakistanis have added themselves to the ‘boat people’ of Southeast Asia, trying to enter Australia illegally. A boat capsize has taken the lives of scores of them, all hailing from the areas that have been subjected to sectarian strife where Shias have been targeted. A bulk of them belonged to Kurram Agency because Pakistani routes were closed to them and they couldn’t go home from Peshawar if they wanted to. The scourge of al Qaeda and its henchmen, funded by private citizens from Arab states, has decided to put to an end to a community that the state of Pakistan cannot protect.
Hazara websites tell the gory tale and appeal to the state to protect the community. Every month, a shocking 60 Hazaras are killed in Quetta, which has the dubious reputation of being home to the infamous Quetta Shura of Mullah Omar. Quetta has a sizeable population of widows and orphans telling the sorry tale of Islamabad’s distraction with enemies it can’t defeat, its military commentators and retired diplomats daily telling the nation how to stand up to the anti-Pakistan triad of America, India and Israel. Over the last half-decade, 50,000 Hazaras have left Balochistan for other countries, some of them dying on the way.
The Baloch in Balochistan are up in arms in revenge for their ‘disappeared’ relatives and are taking it out on innocent non-Baloch inhabitants through their rebel groups, blowing up pipelines and killing people inside Quetta to remind Islamabad that it is off-target when it says India is doing it; and the army is wrongly focused when it goes after terrorists calling them Indian and American agents. The al Qaeda enjoys the direct allegiance of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, Jandullah and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Indirectly, it enjoys a meeting of the minds with the organisations busy agitating against America in the shape of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council. The nation does not know what is going on because of the ‘linguistic divide’ in the media: the Urdu media has still to recognise basic facts and will not name terrorist organisations, while TV anchors shrink from the truth for fear of being killed.
All these killers will be needed soon in Afghanistan when the next war for ‘strategic depth’ is fought. Because they are the jihadis that will fight for Pakistan, they are allowed the franchise in Pakistan of exterminating their ideological enemies. The Pakistani state doesn’t seem care if Christians are targeted through the blasphemy law and if the Ahmadi community is persecuted against. It is still somewhat upset over what is happening to the Shia community. But the grooves of habit formed by the impunity of persecution of the other minority communities are fast paving the way for the next bloodletting.
The Pakistani state faces defeat if it fights the next war in Afghanistan through its non-state actors. It is a grave blunder to let these non-state actors go about their killing ways as a kind of dishonourable price for defeating another superpower in Afghanistan. This time, these non-state actors are going to face another kind of Afghanistan, better equipped to fight our marauders. Pakistan should brace itself for the flood of Pakhtun-Afghan refugees after 2014, and should remember that every time we try to win victories in Afghanistan, half the Pakhtun nation of that country arrives in Pakistan as refugees. The war to fight is the war inside Pakistan — with the help of the outside world we are being taught to hate.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2012.
دہشتگردوں سےروابط کی تحقیقات کا مطالبہ
آخری وقت اشاعت: ہفتہ 30 جون 2012 , 19:13 GMT 00:13 PST
پاکستان کے انسانی حقوق کے کمیشن نے دعویٰ کیا ہے کہ ہزارہ کمیونٹی کے افراد نے انہیں قانون نافذ کرنے والے اداروں کے بعض اہلکاروں یا بعض عناصر کے دہشت گردوں کے ساتھ گٹھ جوڑ کا ثبوت فراہم کیا ہے۔
کمیشن نے جمعہ کو جاری کیے گئے ایک بیان میں واضح کیا ہے کہ کمیشن اس الزام یا دعوے کی صداقت یا سچائی کے بارے میں نہیں کہہ سکتا لیکن اس الزام کی بھی تحقیقات ہونی چاہیے۔
کوئٹہ میں شیعہ زائرین کی بس میں دھماکہ سے چودہ افراد ہلاک ہوگئے تھے، انسانی حقوق کمیشن یعنی ایچ آر سی پی کے مطابق صرف رواں سال کے دوران بلوچستان میں ہلاک کیے جانے والے شیعہ حضرات کی تعداد ساٹھ سے زائد ہے۔
ایچ آر سی پی کا کہنا ہے کہ ہر کوئی جانتا ہے کہ قاتل کون ہیں کیونکہ ہر حملے کے ساتھ حملہ آوروں کے بارے میں کہا جاتا ہے کہ انہیں سکیورٹی فورسز کی ہمدردی اور اعانت حاصل ہے۔
شیعہ زائرین کی بس کو ماضی میں بھی نشانہ بنایا گیا ہے
انسانی حقوق کمیشن کی چیئرمین زہرہ یوسف کی جانب سے جاری کیے گئے اس بیان میں کہا گیا ہے کہ بلوچستان میں شیعہ زائرین کا قتل اس بات کو ظاہر کرتا ہے کہ دہشت گرد مذہب کی بنیاد پر شہریوں کو نشانہ بنانے پر تلے ہوئے ہیں اور ریاست کوئی کارروائی کرنا نہیں چاہتی یا ان ہلاکتوں کو روکنے میں ناکام ہو گئی ہے۔
ایچ آر سی پی نے کہا ہے کہ گزشتہ سال بلوچستان سے ایران جانے والے زائرین کی بس پر حملے کے بعد یہ یقین تھا کہ جب تک مجرموں کو پکڑا نہیں جاتا وہ ایک بار پھر ظلم ڈھائیں گے۔
کمیشن کے مطابق یہ الزام بھی عائد کیا گیا ہے کہ ایران جانے والے جن زائرین کو جمعرات کے روز ہدف بنایا گیا درحقیقت وہ کئی بسوں میں سوار تھے لیکن حکام نے انہیں ایک ہی بس میں جانے کے لیے کہا جس کے بعد انہیں نشانہ بنایا گیا۔
کمیشن نے حیرت کا اظہار کرتے ہوئے کہا ہے کہ اس بار پولیس کی ایک ٹیم بس کے ساتھ تھی اور جیسا کہ مستونگ کے حملے میں ہوا نہ تو اس حملے کو روکا جا سکا اور نہ ہی مجرموں کو پکڑا گیا۔ فرق صرف اتنا تھا کہ وہ لوگ جو مارے گئے یا زخمی ہوئے اُنہیں نسبتاً جلدی ہسپتال پہنچایا گیا۔
پاکستان کے کمیشن برائے انسانی حقوق نے مطالبہ کیا کہ اس حملے کی تفتیش کے دوران اس بات کی بھی تحقیقات کی جانی چاہیے کہ دہشت گردوں کی مدد اور پشت پناہی کون کر رہا ہے۔
حکومت کمیونٹی کی حالت زار کے بارے میں سوچ بچار کرے، اس فرقے کا منظم اور سوچے سمجھے منصوبے کے تحت قتل عام کھلم کھلا بربریت اور جارحیت ہے۔
ایچ آرسی پی کا کہنا ہے کہ کیا یہ حیرانگی کی بات نہیں ہے کہ ہزارہ فرقے سے تعلق رکھنے والے متعدد نوجوان ملک چھوڑ کر چلے جانا چاہتے ہیں، اس مقصد کے لیے وہ بعض اوقات ٹوٹی پھوٹی کشتیوں میں سفر کرنے کا خطرہ بھی مول لینے کے لیے تیار ہیں، ایسی ہی ایک کوشش میں ستر نوجوان انڈونیشیا میں اپنی قیمتی جانوں سے ہاتھ دھو بیٹھے ۔
کمیشن کو یقین ہے کہ جب تک قاتلوں کو پکڑا نہیں جاتا اور انہیں قرار واقعی سزا نہیں دی جاتی پاکستان ایک ایسی جگہ میں
تبدیل ہو جائے گا جہاں زندگی گزارنا مشکل ہو جائے گا۔
People smugglers exploit dangers to cash in on desperation
Michael BachelardJune 30, 2012
No choice ... ethnic Hazaras from Afghanistan wait in Cisarua, West Java, for people smugglers to take them to Australia. Photo: Michael Bachelard
ASYLUM seekers have accused people smugglers in Indonesia of taking advantage of the recent fatal sinking of two refugee boats to jack up their prices.
Some of the thousands waiting in Cisarua for a boat to Christmas Island told the Herald yesterday the extra charge, up to double the usual price, was to buy ''stronger boats'' after the drownings.
But they say Australia's political ructions are also pushing up the price as thousands compete to get to Australia before the election of an Abbott government.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Hameed Ullah, 21, an ethnic Hazara asylum seeker who has been waiting for about four months, told the Herald he had received a call from his ''agent'' three days ago upping the price.
''He said: 'The sea is crazy … If you want to go with me, now the rate is $US8200.''' Two months ago it cost $US4000 to $US6000, Mr Ullah said.
There is no guarantee the extra price will buy a better boat. Asylum seekers do not know the real names or phone numbers of the people smugglers. After paying the fee, they wait to receive a phone call saying a boat is ready. They can choose to board or not board once they see the vessel.
Mr Ullah said people followed the political news in Australia and it increased demand to get there sooner rather than later.
''They know now the condition; they read [about] the election. Australia is near to change the prime minister,'' he said.
''We think if they are to change we will be here a long time. Julia Gillard is good for refugee people. If they change, maybe it's bad for us because maybe we can't arrive in Australia.''
Mr Ullah was a student in Afghanistan before his father was killed by the Taliban. He took his family's life savings to come to Cisarua, two hours from Jakarta, where he lives with 20 to 30 other asylum seekers. All are waiting with increasing urgency for a boat to a country they believe should welcome them.
Another Hazara man, Imayat Ali, 55, said the danger would not stop them as they were fleeing far worse in Afghanistan and Pakistan. ''We are risking our life to go to Australia, even [though] the current is too high, the boats are not too strong. But still people want to go … better to die in the sea on the way to Australia than with the Taliban in Afghanistan.''
Mr Ali's nephew was saved by Australian rescuers from the ship that sank, with the loss of at least 90 lives last week. In a brief phone call from Christmas Island he told his uncle: ''Don't come with such a person who you don't believe, and bring with you a tyre tube with air in it. The sea is very high.''
He did not know specifically about the government's ''Malaysia solution'', but he did know about Malaysia from family members who are there.
''We cannot go to Malaysia … what a place their jails are! Unhuman treatment … We only want to be in Australia.''
Mr Ali said people were grateful to the people smugglers. ''We're thanking the people who bring us here. They relieve us … We are yearning for the service they render to us.''
Brisbane Times
No choice ... ethnic Hazaras from Afghanistan wait in Cisarua, West Java, for people smugglers to take them to Australia. Photo: Michael Bachelard
ASYLUM seekers have accused people smugglers in Indonesia of taking advantage of the recent fatal sinking of two refugee boats to jack up their prices.
Some of the thousands waiting in Cisarua for a boat to Christmas Island told the Herald yesterday the extra charge, up to double the usual price, was to buy ''stronger boats'' after the drownings.
But they say Australia's political ructions are also pushing up the price as thousands compete to get to Australia before the election of an Abbott government.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Hameed Ullah, 21, an ethnic Hazara asylum seeker who has been waiting for about four months, told the Herald he had received a call from his ''agent'' three days ago upping the price.
''He said: 'The sea is crazy … If you want to go with me, now the rate is $US8200.''' Two months ago it cost $US4000 to $US6000, Mr Ullah said.
There is no guarantee the extra price will buy a better boat. Asylum seekers do not know the real names or phone numbers of the people smugglers. After paying the fee, they wait to receive a phone call saying a boat is ready. They can choose to board or not board once they see the vessel.
Mr Ullah said people followed the political news in Australia and it increased demand to get there sooner rather than later.
''They know now the condition; they read [about] the election. Australia is near to change the prime minister,'' he said.
''We think if they are to change we will be here a long time. Julia Gillard is good for refugee people. If they change, maybe it's bad for us because maybe we can't arrive in Australia.''
Mr Ullah was a student in Afghanistan before his father was killed by the Taliban. He took his family's life savings to come to Cisarua, two hours from Jakarta, where he lives with 20 to 30 other asylum seekers. All are waiting with increasing urgency for a boat to a country they believe should welcome them.
Another Hazara man, Imayat Ali, 55, said the danger would not stop them as they were fleeing far worse in Afghanistan and Pakistan. ''We are risking our life to go to Australia, even [though] the current is too high, the boats are not too strong. But still people want to go … better to die in the sea on the way to Australia than with the Taliban in Afghanistan.''
Mr Ali's nephew was saved by Australian rescuers from the ship that sank, with the loss of at least 90 lives last week. In a brief phone call from Christmas Island he told his uncle: ''Don't come with such a person who you don't believe, and bring with you a tyre tube with air in it. The sea is very high.''
He did not know specifically about the government's ''Malaysia solution'', but he did know about Malaysia from family members who are there.
''We cannot go to Malaysia … what a place their jails are! Unhuman treatment … We only want to be in Australia.''
Mr Ali said people were grateful to the people smugglers. ''We're thanking the people who bring us here. They relieve us … We are yearning for the service they render to us.''
Brisbane Times
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.
Enlarge
(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.”
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.
Enlarge
(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.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)