I am the diligent optimist from Dawn.com on Vimeo.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
I am a Hazara; Dawn's special feature
Close to 1,000 Hazaras have been killed in targeted attacks and shootings in the capital of Pakistan’s largest province. The indifference towards the atrocities has forced this shrinking community to take escape routes and gamble between life in the promised land and death on the ocean.
I am the gravestone and the photograph
Every Friday, after the Juma prayer, people start filing into this small place at the foothills. Nobody in the community seems to miss this ritual. Other than the small mounds topped by two or three stones, a corridor stands out prominently. It is dotted with portraits of young students, ambitious bankers, committed teachers and promising lawyers on each side. Each image is full of life. A humming recitation spreads around and the sound of sobbing women can be heard clearly with the setting sun, which eventually dissolves into dusk. Welcome to the Hazara Graveyard.
Persian signboards, calligraphers and engravers are lined up along the road that leads to this necropolis. A small street turns from the corner of a marriage hall and heads up towards the hill. A few houses down, a narrow by-lane funnels to reveal an array of flags and standards that mark the skyline – a sight which beholds every observer. This cemetery surpasses any possible manifestation of tragedy. As the targeted killings picked up, the Hazara community decided to dedicate a part of the graveyard separately for this purpose. Before the logistics could be sorted out, this ‘section’ was already filled to capacity. While Hazaras buried the victims of one tragedy, the news of another would reach them.
The graveyard has now expanded to three portions. After the first part, another was procured and soon it was overloaded too. Given the continued frequency of killings, the third portion is likely to run out of space at any time. All the tombstones are uniformly designed: a photo of the deceased, his date of birth, the date and place of the incident and a verse from the Quran. Each grave is a story, and a unique one. Some were killed while going to work, while others lost their lives on the highways. One Hazara was killed commuting to his business and others on their way back from university. At one corner, five graves are built in a line. These belong to five cousins who had ventured out for a friendly cricket match and were fired upon at close range...Please follow the link to read the rest of the story...
Monday, November 19, 2012
Gunmen kill Shia Muslim of Hazara community in Quetta, Pakistan
Pakistani volunteers carry a gunshot victim on a stretcher at a hospital following an attack by gunmen in Quetta. (File photo)
Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:45AM GMT
Unknown gunmen have killed a Shia Muslim in the Pakistani city of Quetta in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, Press TV reports.
The masked men, riding motorbikes opened fire on a bus parked in a terminal in Quetta early Monday, leaving a Shia Muslim of Hazara tribe dead.
Pakistan’s police has launched an investigation into the attack.
No group has claimed responsibility for the offensive.
Dozens of Shia Muslims belonging to Hazara community have lost their lives in Baluchistan in recent months.
Pakistan’s pro-Taliban militants have launched a violent campaign against Shia Muslims over the past years.
According to local sources, militants affiliated to Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorist groups have killed hundreds of Shia Muslims in the region since the start of the campaign.
The country’s Shia leaders have called on the government to form a judicial commission to investigate the bloodshed.
The killing of Shias in Pakistan has sparked international outrage, with rights groups and regional countries expressing concern over the ongoing carnage. Still, those behind the violence are rarely caught or punished.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Lone survivor 'floated for three days'
Kate Bastians, The West Australian
November 16, 2012, 6:24 am
Lone survivor 'floated for three days'
An asylum seeker says he clung to a rubber tube and drifted helplessly for three days before rescue as the sole survivor of a boat that sank en route to Christmas Island.
Habib Ullah, 22, of Karachi, said he was among 34 Hazara from Afghanistan and Pakistan aboard a rickety boat that left Indonesia on October 26.
Speaking from Jakarta's Kuningan Detention Centre, an emotional Mr Ullah said the engine failed and the boat started taking on water in treacherous conditions after about one-third of the voyage.
He described the horror of watching friends, many who could not swim, drown around him as he clung to the tube he took aboard with him.
"One by one they were drowning before my eyes," he said. "I could not do anything but watch. I witnessed about 18 to 20 people drown."
He said he was in despair as his hopes of rescue faded fast.
"I saw very big oil tankers but they were too far from me," he said. "I was at the mercy of the ocean and very scared.
"My face was burnt, my legs were sore and my whole body was in a critical condition."
He was semiconscious when fishermen picked him up and nursed him for five days before handing him to Indonesian officials.
Mr Ullah told his story to send a message to Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
"Please accept asylum seekers because it is too dangerous to go back to our homeland," he said. "We Hazaras are very grateful to the Australian Government and people for their generosity that is willing to accept us into their society."
But he did not see offshore processing as the solution.
Mr Ullah said Hazaras in Pakistan and Afghanistan gambled with their lives just walking to the markets. "I want to complete my education in a safe environment where there is no prejudice or religious violence," he said.
Refugee advocate Victoria Martin-Iverson said it was the second boat lost in the past four months with neither reported in the media.
Shahin Tanin, of Brisbane, has grave fears for his cousin Mohammad Jawad, 40, who left Jakarta on August 13.
Mr Tanin said none of the 26 Hazara passengers, including women and children, has been heard from. "I fear he has drowned or why wouldn't one of them contact us," he said.
He said Mr Jawad was forced to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban threatened to kill him when he refused to join them.
Ms Martin-Iverson said she wondered how many lives were lost at sea without the public knowing.In June, it was reported a boat with 67 asylum seekers disappeared en route to Christmas Island.
Lone survivor 'floated for three days'
An asylum seeker says he clung to a rubber tube and drifted helplessly for three days before rescue as the sole survivor of a boat that sank en route to Christmas Island.
Habib Ullah, 22, of Karachi, said he was among 34 Hazara from Afghanistan and Pakistan aboard a rickety boat that left Indonesia on October 26.
Speaking from Jakarta's Kuningan Detention Centre, an emotional Mr Ullah said the engine failed and the boat started taking on water in treacherous conditions after about one-third of the voyage.
He described the horror of watching friends, many who could not swim, drown around him as he clung to the tube he took aboard with him.
"One by one they were drowning before my eyes," he said. "I could not do anything but watch. I witnessed about 18 to 20 people drown."
He said he was in despair as his hopes of rescue faded fast.
"I saw very big oil tankers but they were too far from me," he said. "I was at the mercy of the ocean and very scared.
"My face was burnt, my legs were sore and my whole body was in a critical condition."
He was semiconscious when fishermen picked him up and nursed him for five days before handing him to Indonesian officials.
Mr Ullah told his story to send a message to Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
"Please accept asylum seekers because it is too dangerous to go back to our homeland," he said. "We Hazaras are very grateful to the Australian Government and people for their generosity that is willing to accept us into their society."
But he did not see offshore processing as the solution.
Mr Ullah said Hazaras in Pakistan and Afghanistan gambled with their lives just walking to the markets. "I want to complete my education in a safe environment where there is no prejudice or religious violence," he said.
Refugee advocate Victoria Martin-Iverson said it was the second boat lost in the past four months with neither reported in the media.
Shahin Tanin, of Brisbane, has grave fears for his cousin Mohammad Jawad, 40, who left Jakarta on August 13.
Mr Tanin said none of the 26 Hazara passengers, including women and children, has been heard from. "I fear he has drowned or why wouldn't one of them contact us," he said.
He said Mr Jawad was forced to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban threatened to kill him when he refused to join them.
Ms Martin-Iverson said she wondered how many lives were lost at sea without the public knowing.In June, it was reported a boat with 67 asylum seekers disappeared en route to Christmas Island.
Political fallout: Raisani fires Changhezi from cabinet
By Our Correspondent
Published: November 16, 2012
Changhezi says he had told Raisani govt should resign as it had failed to control situation. PHOTO: ONLINE/FILE
QUETTA:
Quality Education Minister Jan Ali Changezi was stripped of his cabinet post on Thursday. Changezi, a leader of the PPP, had earlier blamed the provincial government for its “failure to stop the killing of Hazaras”.
Talking to the media, Changhezi said that he was informed in Islamabad that he had been relieved of his post. He said that he had told Chief Minister Aslam Raisani that it was alarming that every day five to six Hazara people were being killed and the government should resign as it had failed to control the situation.
“It is my duty to raise the voice for the people of my constituency,” he remarked. “I took a principled stance not to attend the special session of Balochistan Assembly that reposed confidence in Raisani,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2012.
Published: November 16, 2012
Changhezi says he had told Raisani govt should resign as it had failed to control situation. PHOTO: ONLINE/FILE
QUETTA:
Quality Education Minister Jan Ali Changezi was stripped of his cabinet post on Thursday. Changezi, a leader of the PPP, had earlier blamed the provincial government for its “failure to stop the killing of Hazaras”.
Talking to the media, Changhezi said that he was informed in Islamabad that he had been relieved of his post. He said that he had told Chief Minister Aslam Raisani that it was alarming that every day five to six Hazara people were being killed and the government should resign as it had failed to control the situation.
“It is my duty to raise the voice for the people of my constituency,” he remarked. “I took a principled stance not to attend the special session of Balochistan Assembly that reposed confidence in Raisani,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2012.
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