While most of us in Pakistan were enjoying the cricket match between Pakistan and India on Sunday night, the persecuted Hazara-Shia community of Quetta came under attack once again. Three people including a policeman were killed when gunmen opened fire on them. The incident has been confirmed as targeted killing. Despite the tall claims of the terrorists’ ‘backbone’ being broken under the countrywide operation against them, there seems to be no respite for the Hazara-Shia community of Quetta, who continue to be on the receiving end of terror attacks.
Just because large-scale terrorist attacks against this persecuted minority, such as the ones that took place back in 2003 and that prompted mass protests, have, for the time being halted, doesn’t mean that things have changed for the better. How can the civil-military leadership claim victory in this war when a provincial capital continues to witness deadly sectarian attacks? Several months ago, Chaudhry Nisar said that banned sectarian outfits should not be equated with terrorist groups. Taken to its ‘logical’ conclusion — would the honourable Minister of the Interior have us believe that sectarian attacks like the latest one in Quetta do not fall into category of ‘terrorism’? If that is state policy — such attacks targeting religious minority groups will continue unheeded, their perpetrators seemingly secure in the knowledge that not for them will there be any hauling before the Anti-Terrorism Court.
Also problematic is the way in which the media chooses to portray attacks on the Hazara-Shia community. A section of mainstream media tends to hide the Shia identity of the victims. They are described simply as ‘Hazaras’, giving a purely ethnic colour to the violence. The fact is that Hazaras are not being targeted for their ethnicity — but for their Shia faith. The sectarian militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), that claims responsibility for almost all attacks on this community, has also vowed to ‘rid’ Pakistan of Shias. Therefore, it should be clear that the violence against the community is triggered through sectarianism and not ethnicity.
The act of not completely mentioning the identity of the victim strengthens the perpetrators’ hands. When the killer proudly claims responsibility for the attack on a minority group, mentioning the victim’s religious identity is as important as naming the terror group behind the attack. Media should clearly name the identity of both the perpetrators and the victims. And it is time for the government to end its policy of tolerance towards banned sectarian outfits and act against them. *