Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani made a mockery of the bereaved Hazara families by offering to send them a truckload of tissue papers to wipe off their tears
“I don’t hold anybody responsible for the brutal murder of my sister but the provincial Balochistan government and the Pakistani spy agency, ISI", says Yazdan Salimi, a young Hazara man. He lost a sibling on March 29 when a terrorist attack in Quetta on a van carrying Hazara commuters claimed over a dozen lives.
"People at the helm of affairs in the Balochistan province should be brought to dock and made accountable for their failure to provide security to ethnic Hazara minority in the capital city", Salimi tells Viewpoint. He is one among thousands of Hazara asylum-seekers who have left the Pakistani city of Quetta to take refuge in Australia amid rising fear of ethnic and religious persecution.
At an Australian detention centre for asylum-seekers, Salimi mourns the death of his sister and feels helpless for being unable to see for the last time the face of his departed sister before she was laid to rest.
Like Salimi’s, there are hundreds of other bereaved Hazara families who have lost their loves ones in the terrorist attacks in Quetta only in recent months. However, no perpetrator has been nabbed or convicted. The government of the day in Pakistan is not willing to act effectively to preclude what most members of the affected community describe as the ‘systematic genocide of the Hazaras’.
The current situation in Quetta is no less than a nightmare for the Hazaras. They have never experienced such nightmarish times ever since their migration from Afghanistan to Pakistan over a century ago. Life has become a living hell for the Hazaras in Quetta owing to persistent targeted attacks by sectarian terrorists. The Hazaras find it difficult even to earn a livelihood. They cannot look after their business. They have stopped sending their children to schools and colleges. Thousands have fled abroad to save their life. Terrorists gun down the Hazaras at the places of their own choice, anywhere in the city.
In the latest series of the targeted attacks from March 26 to April 14, over thirty Hazaras were killed. The way culprits escape from the crime scene poses a big question mark on the efficiency and performance of the law enforcement agencies deputed across Quetta city.
The provincial government---mainly made up of the ministers allegedly involved in heinous crimes like murder, robbery, drug trafficking, arms smuggling and kidnapping for ransom---seems to be least bothered by these killings. Its interest to protect Hazaras can be gauged by the statement of the Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani wherein he made a mockery of the bereaved Hazara families by offering to send them a truckload of tissue papers to wipe off their tears.
However, expecting the provincial government to act against sectarian terrorists is a futile exercise. These sectarian terrorist are patronized by the most powerful elements in the state. To understand the growing sectarian violence in Quetta, one needs to link it with the larger game called the ‘Strategic Depth’.
In its pursuit of ‘Strategic Depth’, Pakistan military has assigned a pivotal role to Afghan Taliban [with Haqqani faction in the lead] and their Pakistani counterparts. Sectarian outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Taliban have ideological affinities with Taliban besides common Saudi and Khaki patrons. Taliban’s anti-Shia and anti-Iran bias hardly deserves a mention. When they were at the helm of Kabul, a war was about to break out between Iran and Afghanistan. When Taliban captured Mazar-e-Sharif and other parts of north Afghanistan, over 5000 Hazaras were massacred.
The ongoing killings of Hazaras can either be attributed to a Faustian bargain Khakis have made with Taliban. The Khakis are it seems willingly tolerating sectarian violence as long as Taliban and their sectarian Pakistani allies carry on the ‘Strategic Depth’ adventure. The Hazara pogrom in Quetta may also be attributed to Taliban strategy, that converges with the policy of ‘Strategic Depth’ too, to put Afghan Hazara under pressure. Hazara, the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, have been part of the Karzai regime and a big hurdle in the execution of any ‘Strategic Depth’ plan. One may also speculate about Saudi hand behind such anti-Shia killings in view of growing Pak-Iran co-operation under the PPP government.
However, these killings must stop. The onus lies with people of Pakistan, national and international human rights bodies, progressive forces, and the state, above all, to act and provide the Hazara community the protection it deserves.
| The writer is a freelance journalist. He hails from Quetta. He has been a reporter for Dawn News and APP from 2001 to 2011 in Quetta and Islamabad. He can be reached at |
