Shia Hazaras commemorate victims of terror attacks in Pakistan: Report

The Hazaras around the world including the United States annually commemorate victims of two terrorist attacks in Pakistan, said a Canada-based think tank.

The month of January is unlucky for Pakistan's Hazaras as the first terrorist attack happened in January 2013, where 130 were killed in bomb attacks in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. The second terrorist attack took place last year where eleven miners were slaughtered, according to International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS).

The Hazaras of Pakistan are a Shia minority that radical Sunni regard as non-Islamic and have persecuted for decades. That is why Hazaras in Pakistan and around the world in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia annually commemorate the victims of the attacks.

However, the past alone does not drive the community's activities and they recently used the occasion to call on the Pakistani government to protect them from slander, discrimination, beatings, and killings, IFFRAS reported.

Earlier, on January 14 this year, a protest was organised by several minority communities in front of the Punjab Assembly in Lahore demanding a fair and democratic electoral process to fill up reserved seats for minorities in Parliament and the National Assembly.

Protestors claimed the current system allowed political parties to select handpicked persons to represent the minorities without their consent which was undemocratic.

According to a Canada-based think tank, the Hazara (both in Afghanistan and Pakistan) today face enormous difficulties in exercising their fundamental human rights, i.e., right to life, freedom of movement, right to higher education, and the like. They also have limited social opportunities due to fear of violence.

One Hazara student told the Pakistan National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR) that, "A Hazara cannot visit the whole city of Quetta without inviting danger to his life". That speaks volumes of the level of violence they undergo! The Hazaras are also fearful to go to shopping centres and earn a livelihood in Quetta as their movement is limited to a few safe areas of Quetta, IFFRAS reported.

It further reported that the living conditions of the Hazaras in modern-day Pakistan has been described by the NCHR in a 2018 report. It states that the greatest burden of sectarianism is borne by the Shia Hazara community of Balochistan.

The total population of Hazaras is estimated to be approximately between 0.4 to 0.5 million people. The report notes that Hazaras have consistently been targeted by terrorists and religious fanatics since 1999, through suicide bombings and targeted killings, with more than 2,000 having reportedly been killed in the last 14 years. The existing situation of the Hazara community is precarious. The Hazaras are a community at risk; recall that they constitute only one of the numerous ethnic minorities in Pakistan, IFFRAS reported.

( With inputs from ANI )