The slaughter of Shiite Hazaras

Today the struggle against state oppression is being ripped apart by religious sectarianism and other prejudices. The strategists of the state aggravate such conflicts to break the resistance

The grotesque, remorseless and relentless slaughter of the Shiite Hazaras in Baluchistan is yet another grim episode laying bare the escalating conflagration in the region. This barbarous act reveals the extreme complexity of the sectarian strife and nationalism that the region is immersed in. It is the outcome of a rotten state and a system that has miserably failed to bring peace, prosperity or stability to the region.

Accumulating evidence reveals the involvement of the state in this catastrophe. The Hazaras have been systematically targeted and murdered for almost a decade. None of the perpetrators have been arrested or prosecuted. The complicity of the religious terrorist outfits created by the state to expedite its ever increasing coercion is blatantly clear.

As Pakistani capitalism became more and more rotten due to the burgeoning economic and social crisis, the state became more brittle and erratic in its acts of repression and terror. Most of these fanatical groups were created primarily to operate in the interest of sections of the ruling class and the bosses of the state. These non-state actors were after all Frankenstein monsters, formed and fabricated to act in areas beyond the writ of the state. These so called illegal and monstrous acts were carried out by bigots, recruited, trained and financed by imperialists, the state agencies and regimes like the reactionary Saudi monarchy bred and indoctrinated in religious and sectarian mythology. Rapidly changing circumstances and the accompanying drastic policy shifts of the imperialists and their bogeys in Pakistan made it difficult to keep these rogue elements in leash.

As a result, these fanatical organizations atomized. Elements of these groups split away becoming even more frenzied and bestial. Massive amounts of black money generated through the drug trade and other criminal activities made jihad and terrorism a very lucrative enterprise. New warlords and drug barons emerged in the war of attrition started by the imperialists after the afghan revolution of 1978. Those who split began to attack the masters that created them. This splintering and the growing antagonisms further polarized sections of the state already in conflict. Confronting each other in covert operations, these fanatical organizations were used to further the interests of various factions of the civilian and the military elite. These intrinsic conflicts within state institutions badly damaged the cohesion and the chain of command of the armed forces.

The other aspect is the mineral wealth and strategic geography of Baluchistan.   International and regional powers have their own imperial designs. Like hungry vultures they are descending on and are tearing apart the body politic of Baluchistan. This has led to imperialist proxy wars, with not only states but also multinational corporations in conflict, striving to increase their share of the plunder of the resources of the region. On one hand there is covert conflict between Chinese and US imperialism’s interests not only over resources but for strategic access to the Gawader port and the Mekran coast.

Similarly clashes between the Saudi regime and the Iranian Mullah aristocracy are escalating. It is known that some of those Wahabi and Deobandi organizations, whose splinter groups are being accused of repeated genocidal acts against the Shiite Hazaras, were created, sponsored and nurtured by the Saudi intelligence agency. The main ploy of the Saudi and Iranian fundamentalist regimes in this great game is to conduct proxy wars on a sectarian basis to fabricate external hostility and achieve regional hegemony.

The oppressed people of Baluchistan, especially the Hazaras, are being slaughtered on a sectarian religious basis. But the Baluch masses have suffered national repression and class exploitation for more than six decades. Baluchistan is geographically the largest and richest province of Pakistan with extensive resources. Yet its people are suffering from poverty and misery of the greatest order. Ninety-two percent of its districts have been classified as ‘high deprivation’ areas.

The main state of pre partition Baluchistan, Kalat, was inducted into Pakistan through palace intrigue and brute military force. As a result throughout the history of the country there has been resistance against the national oppression of the state of Pakistan. Baluch youth and political activists have been involved in several armed struggles against the repression of the state. It is the longest lasting insurgency in Pakistan and the resistance refuses to budge. The struggle in the 1970’s was brutally crushed by the army with the support of US imperialism’s closest collaborator, the Shah of Iran, restored to his peacock throne by imperialism in the 1950’s after an illegal putsch against the popular left nationalist leader Mossadeq. More than 5000 Baluch perished in this liberation struggle. In the current conflict more than 8000 Baluch political activists and youth have been abducted by the ‘agencies’ according to the Baluch nationalists. If the Baluch cannot win independence the military cannot defeat them either.

But the irony of the struggle is that is not only the Pakistani state that tries to buy off some of the leaders in mainstream politics, but that the various imperialist intruders try to penetrate the resistance and use it for their vested interests. In 1978 one of the legendary leaders of the resistance, Sher Mohammad Marri, told a visiting group of revolutionary students, “We are fighting for an independent socialist Baluchistan. Our aim is to use it to spread revolutionary socialism throughout the region.” This statement sheds some light on the ideological basis and character of the national liberation struggle of the 1970’s.

Today the struggle against state oppression is being ripped apart by religious sectarianism and other prejudices. The strategists of the state aggravate such conflicts to break the resistance. Imperialists have never been friends of the toiling masses of the oppressed nationalities and this is especially true in the case of Baluchistan. The right of self determination including secession is a fundamental right of the oppressed masses of Baluchistan. No one can or should force them to live in a state the majority of the Baluch masses do not want to be inhabitants of. But to defeat the capitalist state the movement needs to unite all those sections that are being exploited and repressed by it. It is necessary to link the struggle for national liberation to the class struggle. This will create a formidable force to overthrow this system of class exploitation and national oppression. Lenin expounded upon the relationship between the national and class struggle. In 1920 he wrote, “The right of self-determination is, of course a democratic and not a socialist principle. But genuinely democratic principles are supported and realized in our era only by the revolutionary proletariat; it is for this very reason that they interface with socialist tasks.”

Lal Khan is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at