Daily Times

Shia Hazaras are a Persian-speaking ethnicity of Mongolian decent who settled from Bamiyan, the Hazara zone of central Afghanistan.

According to the Article 9 of Pakistan’s Constitution “no person shall be deprived of life and liberty”. Article 25(1) of the Pakistan’s Constitution tells that “all citizens are equal before law and entitled to equal protection of law”. Contrariwise, people are slaughtered on religious basis which gives the impression violation of the rule of law.

The murder series of Hazara genocide is started since many decades, this community faces the brutal murders, killings and slaughters of their beloved ones since many years. A shocking fact is that there is no any proper arrangement of basic lively hood or basic infrastructure for this community which includes schools, hospitals etc. Hazara community is always observed with demand of “let us leave alive only”. They have never placed a sit-in for the demand of basic rights which are compulsory for a state to provide but they are always seemed bust to protest for securing their lives from target killings and ethnic massacre.

A horrific report released by National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) on 20 March, 2018, disclosed that 509 members of Hazara community were killed and 627 injured in various incidents in Quetta during the last five years. However, figure is probably higher than what was shared by NCHR. According to an autonomous observation, more than two thousands have been killed and more than 7 thousands paralyzed so far in bomb blasts, madness occurrences and passionate slaughters. Hundreds have been died on boats while going to countries like Australia and other parts of the world whereas thousands are still in detention camps. Due to the life loss intimidations, they are seeking asylum and migrating to other countries. So far 70,000 people from the community have migrated. Rest of the community members cannot rescue themselves because of financial constraints.

Human rights watch has claimed that Sectarian violence is a long-lasting problem in Pakistan; attacks against ordinary Hazara have augmented melodramatically in contemporary decades

Every Hazara household has a story of agony and pain to express, one which it recalls each and every day. It has greatly exaggerated their life style and life standard. It has been witnessed that they themselves have become antagonistic in response to the violence imposed upon them. The turnout of Hazara children in schools is worryingly low. As schools and academia is almost absent in areas of Hazara community at Baluchistan.

Human rights watch has claimed that Sectarian violence is a long-lasting problem in Pakistan; attacks against ordinary Hazara have augmented melodramatically in contemporary decades. In 2012, well over 400 members of the Shia population were killed in targeted attacks. Over 120 of these were killed in Balochistan province, the vast majority from the Hazara Shia community. Human Rights Watch has advised Pakistan’s federal government and related provincial governments to make all potential energies to punctually taken into custody and prosecute those accountable for latest attacks and other criminalities aiming the Hazara community. The government should uninterrupted national interventions and the military in authority for security to actively guard those fronting violence from radical groups, and to address the rising sensitivity, predominantly in Balochistan and Pakistan’s tribal areas, that state authorities stare the other way when Hazaras are confronted. It should increase the number of security personnel’s in Hazara areas and reserves at extraordinary menace of attack, principally the Hazara community in Quetta.

Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Imran Khan as he has made promise against the Hazara meanwhile in opposition in PML-N tenure; must fulfil his promise and provide the live securing security along with the provision of basic lively hood needs. Chief justice of Pakistan must take serious notice of killings of Hazara community, which are unstoppable since many decades. Hazaras are even underprivileged and deprived from basic health facilities and education amenities but they are always demanding one thing that is “security of their life”. A state must play its pivotal role to secure the lives of minority in Pakistan, as Qaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah has promised with minorities of Pakistan at the beginning of Independence.

The writer is a freelance journalist, analyst and a sociologist.