FOUZIA NASIR AHMAD
Published 2014-01-26 07:39:10
It was Jan 13, 2013, when 21-year-old Eltaf Hussain was on his way to the dharna outside Bilawal House, Karachi to protest against Hazara killings in Quetta. “How can the rest of the world go on with their daily business, when such a terrible incident has happened to us?” he thought? “Why doesn’t the world stop after so many people have been killed?”
Hussain belongs to the Hazara community of Quetta, a city where he has spent most of his young life. “After completing my intermediate at the Tameer-i-Nau Public College in Quetta, I took a year off as things became dramatically worse for Hazaras. One day my father said to me: ‘you can’t live your life like this’. I then decided to move to Karachi with the sole purpose of continuing my education as it was impossible to do that in Quetta.”
While the Alamdar Road massacre projected the plight of the Hazara onto the national consciousness, it was by no means the beginning of the pogroms against this community.
“I remember that a long time back I was with my father at Sariab Road and he wanted me to wear dark glasses to cover my eyes. I was annoyed even though I knew that anybody can tell from our eyes that we are Hazara.
Later I realised why my father was saying that. He always wore glasses himself. Not long ago, I had to go to the Board Office in Quetta and I covered my face. I wasn’t happy doing this but I knew that this way I would be safer. Things have changed for us over time.”
The year 2008 was a turning point for Pakistan’s Hazaras, when individuals from the community began to be targeted regularly. “Government officials from our community, professionals and even police officers were killed,” recalls Hussain. “There was an incident in Jinnah Town, and then two people were killed on Samundari Road. Wherever they would see a Hazara person, they would kill him,” said Hussain.
While the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has claimed credit for the mass casualty attacks, Hussain suspects there are also those who are seeking to exploit the situation.... Continue Reading.....
Sunday, January 26, 2014
A state of siege
MADEEHA SYED
Updated 2014-01-26 18:07:04
Madeeha Syed speaks to Human Rights Watch's Ali Dayan Hasan about the state and predicament of the Hazara in Quetta
A year after the deadly attacks on the Hazara community, what is the situation now?
While Shias across Pakistan have faced increasingly vicious attacks, a disproportionate number of attacks - the latest being the Jan 21st attack on a pilgrim’s bus in Mastung - have targeted the small Hazara community. Of Shias killed across Pakistan in 2012, around a quarter of the victims were Quetta Hazaras. In 2013, a little under half of those killed were from that community. It is true that major attacks on the scale of January and February 2013 have not taken place since last year. But major attacks are only one aspect of the crisis faced by the community. Survivors and family members of victims describe the effects of a campaign of killings that has targeted all segments of the Hazara community. Hazaras live a ghetto existence, fearful of going about the normal business of life. Hazara religious pilgrims, students, shopkeepers, vegetable sellers, doctors and other professionals have been targeted leading to not just widespread fear but increasingly restricted movement leading to a ghettoisation of community members, increasing economic hardship and curtailed access to education.
How many are opting to flee their homes? And where are they going?
Large numbers are fleeing Pakistan in panic and seeking asylum abroad, even risking their lives in the process. Unable to cope with death stalking them at every turn, many hundreds have fled Quetta for Karachi or other parts of Pakistan. Yet further hundreds have fled Pakistan altogether. Those fleeing usually seek to go to Australia risking a dangerous sea journey that has repeatedly proved fatal. In April 2013, some 60 Hazaras died when their boat sunk in Indonesian waters enroute Australia. These journeys are not only dangerous and expensive, they are often deadly. Almost 1,000 people have died on the crossing from Indonesia to Australia over the last decade — scores of them Hazaras from Pakistan... Continue Reading....
Saturday, January 25, 2014
حکومت کا ایران جانے والے پاکستانی زائرین کوفضائی سروس فراہم کرنےکا فیصلہ
12:17:03 AM ہفتہ, 25 جنوری 2014
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اسٹاف رپورٹ
اسلام آباد : حکومت نے ایران جانے والے پاکستانی زائرین کو فضائی سروس فراہم کرنے کا فیصلہ کر لیا، زائرین پر فضائی سروس کے اضافی اخراجات کا بوجھ بھی نہیں ڈالا جائے گا۔
سرکاری ذرائع کے مطابق حکومت نے ایران جانے والے پاکستانی زائرین کی زندگیوں کو لاحق خطرات کے پیش نظر فضائی سروس فراہم کرنے کا فیصلہ کیا ہے۔
پاک فضائیہ کے سی ون تھرٹی طیاروں کے بیڑے کو یہ سہولت فراہم کرنے کے احکامات دیئے جائیں گے۔ ایران کی سرحد کے قریب سے زائرین کو لے جانے اور واپس لانے کیلئے یہ سہولت فراہم کیا جا رہی ہے۔
گزشتہ شب وفاقی وزیرخزانہ اسحاق ڈار سے پاک فضائیہ کے سربراہ ایئرچیف مارشل طاہر رفیق بٹ کی ملاقات میں اس سروس پر اخراجات کا اندازہ لگایا گیا ہے۔
زائرین سے زمینی سفر کے اخراجات ہی لئے جائیں گے اور ان پر فضائی سہولت سے اٹھنے والے اضافی اخراجات کا بوجھ نہیں ڈالا جائے گا۔
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