Four Shia Hazaras gunned down in Quetta: police

DAWN.COM and SYED ALI SHAH

Photo shows the vehicle of the four victims of the gun attack in Quetta on July 15, 2013.—Photo by Online

QUETTA: Gunmen opened fire at a vehicle in Quetta on Monday, killing four men belonging to the ethnic Shia Hazara community, police said.

Fayyaz Sumbal, the Deputy Inspector General Police, said four militants sprayed bullets on the victims who were travelling in the vehicle on Masjid road area of Quetta, the capital of militancy-hit Balochistan province.

All four men sitting in the vehicle were seriously wounded and succumbed to their injuries on their way to the Combined Military Hospital, he said.

Capital City Police Officer Mir Zubair Mehmood confirmed that all four victims belonged to the Hazara Shia community. Mehmood said security had been tightened following the attack and that the number of personnel guarding all exit and entry points of Quetta city had been doubled.

Quetta has witnessed a recent surge in incidents of sectarian violence, with militants repeatedly targeting the Hazara Shia community in several bombings and gun-attacks.

The Hazara Democratic Party and other Shia organisations have called for three days of mourning and a shutter-down strike on Tuesday in protest of the attack.

Monday’s incident comes exactly two weeks after a deadly suicide bombing at a Quetta Imambargah killed 30 members of the minority community. The Lashkar-i-Jhangvi had claimed responsibility for the blast, one of a series of attacks this year by the sectarian outfit targeting the Hazaras.

Meanwhile in a statement issued Monday evening, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the firing incident and expressed his condolences to the bereaved families. Governor Mohammad Khan Achakzai also condemned the attack.

‘Peace only solution to Balochistan’s problems’

Earlier on Monday, the provincial chief of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, termed the restoration of peace vital for prosperity of the militancy-hit province.

“Peace is the only panacea to all ills of Balochistan,” the senior provincial minister told a press conference at his residence.

Nawab Zehri said Balochistan’s problem was neither the construction of motorways nor development projects rather the worsening law and order problem was the first and foremost issue.

“Construction of motorways does not answer the problem of peace in the province,” he said.

The senior minister expressed serious concerns over the worsening law and order situation and vowed to work with allied parties for restoration of peace in Balochistan.

He said once the cabinet is formed then the allied political parties leaders would put their heads together to find an amicable solution to issues relating to the sparsely populated province of the country.

DAWN 

4 Hazaras are gunned down on Masjid Road, Quetta

کوئٹہ میں فائرنگ سے ہزارہ برادری کے چار افراد جاں بحق

Updated on: 8:55:35 PM پیر, 15 جولائی 201

اسٹاف رپورٹر

کوئٹہ: رمضان المبارک کے مقدس مہینے میں بھی دہشت گرد موت بانٹنے کا خوفناک کھیل کھیل رہے ہیں اور بلا روک ٹوک بے گناہوں کے خون سے اپنے ہاتھ رنگ رہے ہیں۔

کوئٹہ میں افطار کے وقت قاتلوں نے چار افراد پرگولیاں برسا کرانھیں موت کی نیند سلادیا۔

دہشت گردوں نے کوئٹہ کی مسجد روڈ پرایک گاڑی کو نشانہ بنایا اوراندھا دھند گولیاں برسا دیں۔ فائرنگ سے گاڑی میں سوار چارافراد جاں بحق ہوگئے۔ 

ہزارہ ڈیموکریٹک پارٹی نے احتجاجاً کل شٹرڈاؤن ہڑتال اوربلوچستان شیعہ کانفرنس نے یوم سوگ منانے کا اعلان کیا ہے۔ 

جاں بحق افراد کاتعلق ہزارہ برادری سے ہے۔

واقعے کے خلاف ہزارہ ڈیموکریٹک پارٹی نے کل شٹرڈاؤن ہڑتال ۔جبکہ بلوچستان شیعہ کانفرنس نے یوم سوگ کااعلان کردیا ہے۔

Samaa TV

Spare a Thought for the Hazaras of Quetta

Llewelyn Morgan

Posted: 11/07/2013 22:51

A month ago, on June 15th, a bus carrying students home from the Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University in Quetta, Pakistan, was hit by a female suicide bomber. The bus was destroyed and fourteen passengers left dead; but that wasn't the end of it. The militant group behind the bombing, Lashkar-e Jhangvi (LeJ), then attacked the Bolan Medical Complex, where the injured had been taken and anxious relatives were gathering, killing four nurses, among others. We sometimes need to be reminded how utterly depraved the ideology is that drives jihadist groups like the LeJ. University students are blown up, and a hospital is attacked to intimidate and murder those ministering to the victims.

But who are Lashkar-e Jhangvi's victims? The simple answer is, Muslims from the alternative, Shia tradition of Islam. A brutal campaign targeting the Shia minority in Pakistan has been going on for years, with Sunni militant groups like Lashkar-e Jhangvi declaring the Shia heretics and "deserving of death"; and they have encountered scandalously little opposition from the Pakistani authorities, elements of which are quite clearly complicit with the LeJ's agenda. Extremists of the LeJ's stripe consider fair game anyone who hold beliefs different from their own (Christians, Ahmadi Muslims, etc.), but a particular focus of attacks has been the Hazara community in Quetta, descendants of refugees from Afghanistan who are predominantly Shia, and have distinctive, east-Asian features, making them readily identifiable targets....Continue Reading... 

Melbourne Hazara Community - Vigil 4th July 2013

Does Pakistan have a plan to halt terrorism?

AP

This Sunday, June 30, 2013 photo shows a army standing alert at the site of car bombing that killed more than a dozen people and left many injured in Peshawar, Pakistan. There is concern that the country's leaders lack a coherent strategy to fight the pervasive problem of violent extremism. — AP Photo.

Published 2013-07-05 14:11:31

ISLAMABAD: Terrorists have killed at least 160 people during the new Pakistani government's first month in office, fueling concern that the country's leaders lack a coherent strategy to fight the pervasive problem of violent extremism.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) scored a resounding victory in national elections in May with a platform that promoted peace talks as the best way to quell a systematic campaign by the Pakistani Taliban which has killed thousands of people. The plan quickly fell apart after the Taliban withdrew their offer to talk in response to a US drone strike that killed the group's deputy leader at the end of May.

The government has yet to articulate an alternate strategy, and in the meantime, the attacks keep coming. ''The government is completely confused over the terrorism problem,'' said Zahid Hussain, whose books plot the rise of militancy in Pakistan. ''The government's indecisiveness and dithering has emboldened the militants.''

At least 160 people were killed in suspected militant attacks in June, according to an Associated Press count. It was the second most deaths in a month this year, following April, when there were many attacks related to the election, said Mohammed Amir Rana, head of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies. Hussain and other analysts said the government failed to respond aggressively enough to the attacks over the last month. The government mostly relied on routine press releases that criticized the violence and expressed sorrow for the dead, but made no mention of who carried them out or how they would respond.

The government has taken a few public steps to show it is dealing with the attacks, which included the killing of international tourists at a scenic mountain, a suicide bombing of women university students and an attack on a funeral that killed a lawmaker. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif flew to Quetta, which has recently been the base for repeated attacks on the Hazara community. He brought senior security officials with him, including the head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)...Continue Reading... 

Sadness in excess

By Kamran Shafi
Published: July 4, 2013


The writer is a columnist, a former major of the Pakistan Army and served as press secretary to Benazir Bhuttokamran.shafi@tribune.com.pk

I was to give you “far sadder stuff” from my trip to Quetta with the HRCP, in continuation of my piece of last week, wasn’t I? Well, a most sad event, yet another killing of yet more innocent Hazaras took place mid-week just as I was marshalling my thoughts and feelings.

So, the dark glasses and the burqas and the helmets didn’t help, did they? For when we met Hazara political leaders just 12 days ago, they said that whilst they were generally a liberal, educated, outgoing people, even their women and girls had begun to wear burqas to hide their Hazara features.

The men and boys wore dark glasses all the time for the same reason, and those who owned motorcycles wore helmets even while buying/delivering stuff in the marketplaces, even in the intense heat for the same reason.

But none of that helped did it? For the murdering, heartless sectarian terrorists hit them while they were at prayer at an imambargah, where you would only find Shias. What would the Hazara do now? Which cave will they now cower in? Sitting ducks poor things, who gave us our second Commander-in-Chief; courageous fighter pilots; and excellent soldiers with a sense of duty par excellence.

WHEN will the mayhem end? And why not sooner rather than later when the perpetrators are known by their OWN admission of guilt? Punjab is the largest, most powerful province in the country which professes that it will look after the other smaller, more challenged ones, Balochistan leading. Well then, why not straightaway; why not today, when one of the heads of the hydra-headed monster stares us in the eye?

But back to our mission; the first stop of which was a call on the new chief minister of Balochistan, Dr Abdul Malik. I liked him instantly: light and quick of step; straight backed; bright eyes that looked directly at you; a quick wit and an earthiness that only comes with years of very middle-class political activism. May God and nature be kind to him, and may he be able to (or is “allowed to” the word I want?) do the good work he is surely cut out to do.

The recent visit of the prime minister’s to Balochistan and his reiterating that all the agencies of the State must help the new government by following its instructions, is a step in just the right direction. Indeed, I was most heartened to see that possibly the most important person in this whole blessed tamasha, the only English equivalent being “shemozzle”, of Balochistan, the DG ISI was also asked to be there by the PM.

The man who holds all the strings of all the puppets, the IG Frontier Corps (who refused to interact with us, BTW! Indeed, who didn’t even return our telephone calls for a meeting!) had to be there willy-nilly too, which can only spell good for poor old Balochistan.

Our next visit was to the Balochistan Medical Complex (BMC) where the dead, dying and injured girls from the Women’s University (ages 16 to 23, shame on you gentlemen and women terrorists), just down the road, were taken after the blast in their bus. You have to see the site of a suicide bombing to believe it, which is all I will say.

Immediately after, we went to the Women’s University where the tragedy took place and met Vice Chancellor Mrs Sultana Baloch who, strong woman though she is, was still in tears talking about her girls. One was in tears oneself hearing her recount the ordeal they all went through: the complete panic that even the university for young Balochistani girls from all over, even Zhob, was not safe in the monstrous place we have made our country.

It was great to see the HRCP volunteer the services of trauma counsellors from Lahore and Karachi at its own expense if the University thought it would be helpful for those most affected by the mental anguish that such an event surely generates. The thing that stood out most was the spirit with which the young girls wanted the University to reopen and classes to restart. Maybe this generation that has seen the worst of it will, in the end, defeat the monsters?

We then visited the CMH to see the three girls being cared for there and were impressed by the quality of care and of the equipment, second to none in the country, that was being used. All three were in great spirits and wanting to return to their university like their other fellow-students. We also saw a police DSP and a Havildar of the FC, also gravely injured in the attack at the BMC and were told by the smart Lt Col, who was taking us around that, the police officer had barely survived.

The next day at 7.30 in the morning saw us on our way to Ziarat to visit the blown-up Residency in which the Quaid-e-Azam spent some few days when he was mortally ill. It is a hulk of what it was, burnt to ashes, even parts of the two great chinars in the front lawn, charred. Brought back memories when two friends. Lts Sabir Ali and Abdul Haque, and I of the same rank, actually stayed in rooms right adjacent to the Residency itself in August 1967.

It hurt to see part of our national heritage burnt down; but it hurt infinitely more to see the distraught VC of the Women’s University; the injured girls and jawans, and the grieving relatives of the dead. Buildings can be rebuilt; the dead cannot be brought back and the lives of their loved ones cannot be put together again.

P S: Might one suggest to the PkMAP gentleman who said buildings such as the Quetta Residency brought back memories of the Raj (which is why it was destroyed) to burn down the Quetta Governor’s House and destroy the rail line to Quetta too? Listening, Abdus Samad Khan Achakzai?

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5th, 2013.

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