In a brutal terrorist incident at least 20 people were killed and over 48 others were injured in a suicide attack targeting members of the minority Shia Hazara community in Quetta’s Hazarganji market on Friday.
The Hazarganji neighbourhood has been witness to similar attacks in the past. Hazara shopkeepers are known to stock vegetables and fruits from the Hazarganji bazaar to sell at their own shops. They are provided a security escort to and from Hazarganji since they are constantly under threat of attack.
Hazaras are disproportionately targeted by sectarian violence as they are easily identifiable due to their distinctive physical appearance. Nearly half a million Hazaras have settled here since fleeing Afghanistan to escape violence in their homeland during the past four decades.
A report released by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) last year stated that 509 members of Hazara community were killed and 627 injured in various incidents of terrorism in Quetta from January 2012 to Dec 2017. According to the NCHR, targeted killings, suicide attacks, and bomb blasts have inflicted harm to daily life, education, and business activities of ethnic Hazara community members in Balochistan's largest city.
The Hazaras
Shia Hazaras are a Persian-speaking ethnicity of Mongolian decent who immigrated from Bamiyan, the Hazara region of central Afghanistan. Earlier, they had arrived in colonial India as labourers to feed their families; subsequently, they were forced to flee by the tyrant ruler Abdur Rahman Khan. Many Hazaras settled in Baluchistan’s Quetta, in close proximity to the cantonment area, owing to their employment in the army.
The wave of Hazara killings can be broadly categorised in three phases: first, with the radical Sunni propaganda that began during the regime of Gen Ziaul Haq to counter the Soviet invasion. This radicalism sowed the seed of bigotry and fanaticism. The first message calling the Shia community ‘kafir’ was pasted on the walls of Quetta in 1981. Back then, it was largely ignored by Quetta’s residents.
The second phase is when the killings began, when Hazaras were specifically and premeditatedly targeted for attack. In October 1999, the provincial education minister of Baluchistan Sardar Nisar Ali Hazara was attacked along with his driver and bodyguard at point-blank range. Though the minister survived the attack, it marked the beginning of a targeted killing spree against Hazaras, particularly high-profile members of the community. Doctors, engineers, bankers, businessmen and state functionaries alike were selected, attacked and killed.
The third phase is when the indiscriminate killings — ie the mass murder — of members of the Hazara community began. In June 2003, 12 Hazara police cadets were killed and nine injured when they were attacked en route to the police training institute by Sunni extremists. The next month, a terrorist attack on an imambargah during Friday prayers claimed the lives of around 50 Hazara men, with scores more injured. To date, more than 650 Hazaras have lost their lives in attacks targeting their community.
The Hazara people are vulnerable to attack for several reasons. First, their distinctive features make them quite conspicuous and easily identifiable, even in a large gathering. Second, the two Hazara settlements in Quetta (namely Marriabad and Hazara Town) are approximately 13 kilometres apart, connected to each other by Spinny Road. They are usually targeted along this road when moving between the two areas. Third, the Shia zaireen, who pilgrimage to holy sites in Iran and Iraq, travel through the Taftan border 650km away from Quetta. The Hazara community hosts them. They travel in groups, with each group escorted by armed personnel of the law-enforcement agencies. The distance is long, the terrain unfriendly and the enemy disguised; they have, therefore, been frequently targeted along this route.
Ramzan Mengal again !!
Hazaras have been frequently targeted by Taliban and Islamic State militants and other Sunni Muslim militant groups in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. They have been heavily targeted in Afghanistan in attacks claimed by an affiliate of Islamic State.
This fact can’t be ignored that this incident happened just three days after the release of Ramzan Mengal, the leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) Baluchistan. LeJ claimed responsibility for killing 26 Shia pilgrims on 20 September 2011. Furthermore, LeJ have also killed 13 people in a brutal attack on Shia pilgrims. In the past, LeJ also admitted Quetta bombings in February 2013 which killed 81 and wounded 178 and mostly were Shia people. Another Shia from Hazara community, Syed Muhammad Waseem Naqvi was attacked four times by LeJ but he managed to save his life. There is a pattern that shows that Shia Hazara community has been attacked by LeJ time and again and they have also claimed the responsibility of attacking them. The release of the leader and today’s attack shows a strong connection. No one has yet taken responsibility for this attack.
Every Hazara household has a tale of pain and agony to tell, one which it relives each day. It has greatly affected their way of life. It has been observed that they themselves have become aggressive in response to the violence inflicted upon them. The attendance of Hazara children in schools is worryingly low. Members of their community are migrating to other countries; a large number of them have gone to Australia to find a decent way of life, where they can live without fear of being killed just because of their sect. They are getting rid of their valuable properties at nominal rates to expedite their exit, while those who have been left behind are virtually living in a state of incarceration, confined only to Marriabad and Hazara Town. To imagine life outside the premises of these housing colonies is unthinkable at the moment.