A Special Report by: Khliq Ebrahimi and Mohammad Jan Ahmady
Translated by: M.Rezaie
“Searching the names, They asked who are Sunnis? Then told the Sunnis go aside. We got off the bus and wentaway. When they let go non-Hazaras and non-Shiites, they were sure only Hazaras and Shiites had remained in the bus. Then get them to get off the bus and shot killed them.” Haji Khoshhal Khan the bus driver told the Human Rights Watch what he had seen on December, 2011.
There are mass graves of Hazaras victims of deliberate terrorist attacks in the public graveyard of “Hazara town” and Hazara Graveyard or “Behesht e Zainab”, In Mehabad which the numbers of graves reach to hundreds ones. The first engraved on one of the mass graves in “Hazara Town” belongs to Azizullah. He and his companions who are buried in a row, were going from Quetta to Taftan of Iran on 20 Dec, 2011. Armed men closed their way in “Mastung” area, classified them based on ethnicity, got them off the bus and then shot killed them.
It was not the first bloody incident for Pakistani Hazaras that as a result, 23 were killed and 6 wounded. Nadir Ali Hazara the Chairman of “Hazara Moghul New Generation Party” remembers well the first terrorist attack on Hazaras in 1999 aimed at assassinating Sarda Nesar. Sarda Nesar was a Hazara Minister of Education of Baluchistan State Cabinet. As a result, Sardar Nesar was injured, his driver and bodyguards were killed. The perpetrators of this terrorist attack were arrested and claimed they were members of “Sepah e Sahaba”.
According to the Human Rights Watch report of Pakistani’s Hazaras killed by Sunni terrorist groups, “Sepah e Sahaba” and its right arm “Lashkar e Jahangwi”, mainly have envisioned eliminating Shiites as their major goal. These two terrorist groups have played a major role in mass killings of Hazaras in Mazar e Sharif in the first round of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. After Taliban were defeated by the US and allies in 2011 and then members of these tow terrorist groups and also the return of “Quetta Council”, “Lashkar e Omar”, “TTP”, “Al-Qaeda”, and “ISIS” sectarian violence increased dramatically in all parts of Pakistan and especially in Quetta. The first victims of these terrorist groups were Quetatta Hazaras and Shiites. At least, there is public announcement by Lashkar e Jahangwi, calling Hazaras as infidels and considering their elimination as a religious duty.
Anyhow, from 1999 to 2021, according to the information has JDW received, more than 200 terrorist attacks have been conducted on Hazaras, aimed at individuals or groups. As a result, more than 1000 people have been killed and hundreds have been injured, making them disabled. However, the local sources cite the numbers of the victims more than what Jade-Abresham Weekly, has collected based on reliable evidence. Nader Ali Hazara cites the numbers of victims 2500 people, and Reza Wakil one of Baluchistan Hazaras and Refugees human rights activist in a note sent to JAW has cited the number of victims 3000 killed and more than 3000 injured.
According to the Human Rights Watch, although there is no exact census of Hazaras in Pakistan, but according to the estimations there are about 500,000 Hazaras in Quetta of Baluchistan, Pakistan. When the terrorist attacks increased on Hazaras, those Hazaras who lived in the surrounding cities of Quetta were forced to leave those places and come to the two main slums of Hazaras in Quetta. Shiites and Hazaras witnessed the most attacks between 2010 to 2014 which inflected the most casualties on them. When the highways were closed on this ethnic and religious group, Hazara Shiites preferred to mainly live in Merhabad and Hazara Town.
As a result, Hazars were not secure even in the capital city of Baluchistan. Hazara shopkeepers, businessmen and students were repeatedly attacked in Colleges, and universities. Details of these attacks will come later in this report. These attacks made Hazaras to quit the central market, shops, and businesses and move their business activities into the Hazara slums. Consequently, participation of Hazaras in colleges and universities increased dramatically too. Hazara students limited themselves to schools in Hazara areas. However, Pakistan federal government and Baluchistan State took very limited measures by only surrounding Hazaras in two slums and monitor the movement of non-Hazaras in these areas.
With this preface, this report is based the Human Rights Watch reports, the list of the victims has been prepared by Hazara organizations in Quetta of Pakistan, through interviewing the civil society and people and also going to the two mass graveyards of Hazaras. The initial findings of the report shows the victims include military personnel and civilians. The people and places that have been attacked by the terrorist groups include children, civil society activists, public servants, shopkeepers, businessmen, sportsmen, students and religious gatherings. In this report, mass terrorist attacks have been briefly discussed including the list of the victims, but individual terrorist attacks have been discussed somehow in details including date, place and if possible type of terrorist attack in a separate list which is available at the end of the report.
Download the English version PDF here.
Add Comment