On 20 September 2011, at least 26 Hazaras were shot dead execution style in a Baloch-dominated area of Mastung/Luk-Pass near Quetta. Armed terrorists intercepted a bus en route to Taftan, border town near the Iran border, singled out all Hazara men, and shot them dead. Terrorists stayed at the scene for 10 minutes firing with AK-47's to ensure no one survived. Terrorists ambushed and killed several Hazaras rushing to the scene to ferry their loved ones to the hospital. The Hazara travel far and wide looking for employment and that includes Mashad and Tehran.

A few weeks before the massacre, a sectarian organisation had circulated an open letter addressed to Hazaras in Quetta. Written in the Urdu language, the letter stated:

All Shi'ites are worthy of killing. We will rid Pakistan of unclean people. Pakistan means land of the pure and the Shi'ites have no right to live in this country. We have the edict and signatures of revered scholars, declaring Shi'ites infidels. Just as our fighters have waged a successful jihad against the Shi'ite Hazaras in Afghanistan, our mission in Pakistan is the abolition of this impure sect and its followers from every city, every village and every nook and corner of Pakistan.

Like in the past, our successful jihad against the Hazaras in Pakistan and, in particular, in Quetta, is ongoing and will continue in the future. We will make Pakistan the graveyard of the Shi'ite Hazaras and their houses will be destroyed by bombs and suicide bombers. We will only rest when we will be able to fly the flag of true Islam on this land of the pure. Jihad against the Shi'ite Hazaras has now become our duty.

If there ever was a sign of the demise of the Pakistani state it is the killing of the Hazara community of Quetta. The Hazaras, after getting killed like flies, are asking a question that no one busy rebuking the world for finding fault with Pakistan can answer. The extremism of blasphemy law and the killing of Ahmadis is a national death-wish, but what is the killing of the Hazaras? In Punjab, the government is scared of losing vote, and its leaders fear personal attack from the erstwhile non state actors killing Christians and Ahmadis. In Quetta everyone including the executive is scared of protecting this luckless community numbering nearly 600,000.

Their fault is that they are Shia and their historical origin is Central Afghanistan known as Bamyan, but they have lived in Quetta for centuries. Their other fault is that that they are businessmen and shopkeepers which makes them more elevated in intellect than their Pashtun tormentors. In Kurram they are known are Turis and have been there for centuries. They have some capacity to fight back there but the state of Pakistan has abandoned them to the Taliban and local Sunni rivals, turning a blind eye to the fact that their road connection with Pakistan is no longer free of hazard.

The Turis of Pakistan's Kurram Agency also took no part in the Pak-sponsored jihad and were attacked in 1983, marking the starting-point of the sectarian conflict in Pakistan. Today Turis of Parachinar in Kurram Agency and the Hazaras of Quetta are bearing the brunt of Sunni-Pashtun reprisal. And if Pakistan succeeds once again in controlling Afghanistan, the Hazara of Central Afghanistan should expect genocide. What Pakistan is doing to the Hazara of Quetta is nothing short of ethnic-cleansing. The killers announce loudly that they are killing them because they want to exterminate them to earn Paradise.

This is the underside of Pakistan's military vision. It sees Afghanistan through the Pashtun goggle and that means letting the Shia be put to the sword. This is how Pakistan has survived in the past and this is how it is going to survive with the doctrine of strategic depth. The Hazaras are the burnt offering Pakistan's military thinkers are offering to the holy investors of jihad sitting in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. This is the small print in the contract under which Pak Army and Saudi Army have been exercising in Jhelum. The Saudi aid that will rescue the state of Pakistan from collapsing is running parallel to the private Arab funds that flow into the coffers of the Taliban and their master Al Qaeda so that they can hurt Iran by killing the Hazaras of Pakistan.

Pakistan is in denial about there being an Afghan Shura under Mullah Umar in Quetta and it doesn't matter if this denial is proved false on a daily basis. The Hazara have to pay for the acts of omission and commission of their co-ethnics in Central Afghanistan in the recent past. Organised under their militia Hezb-e-Wahdat, the Hazaras allied with the Jumbish militia of Dostam and Hezb-e-Islami militia of Hekmatyar. In 1995, the Taliban conquered Kabul and captured and murdered the great Hazara leader, Mazari. The Hazaras then fought on the side of the Northern Alliance against the Taliban who visited on them the cruelty to forget the scourge of Mongol hordes.

Because of persecution, the Hazaras of Quetta allowed themselves to be ghettoised, which is a step in the direction of easy killing. All of them moved to Hazara Town which is divided into nine blocks, and almost all the houses are made of concrete. They can speak Urdu but they are originally Persian-speaking. They have, in contrast to other Afghan groups, actively invested in education. The Hazara community is the most educated community in Balochistan. Some 50 percent of the position holders in the matriculation and FA/BA exams are from among them. Hence the visible presence of Hazaras in the civil services, police, the IT market, small businesses and other professional sectors in Balochistan.

In 2003, in one of the worst sectarian assaults in the history of Pakistan, some 58 people, most of them Hazara Shias, were killed while around 200 were injured when suicide bombers attacked Imambargah-e-Kalan in Quetta. Another 38 persons, mostly Hazara Shias, were killed in a sectarian assault on March 2, 2004 on the day of the Ashura. The incident left 200 people injured. Just before the 2003 attack, Quetta city was flooded with leaflets containing fatwas from the country's top-most ulema, declaring the Shia an apostate community. The 2003 massacre was preceded by widespread circulation of anti-Shia fatwas in Quetta, branding them murtad or apostate, a designation normally deserving death in the eyes of the pious Sunni Muslims.

GEO TV (12 September 2003) had TV host Hamid Mir interviewing the imam of the Hazara Imambargah at Quetta where the Shia community had been blown up by suicide bombers. The imam said the attack was carried out by sectarian terrorist groups and this information had been given to the administration in Quetta.

The All Parties Conference (APC) which recently handed over a rapidly Islamising Pakistan to the Army did not have a clue what it was doing except purging itself of its rage against the United States, India and the West. The politician had no idea that the Army was India-centric and was incapable of tackling the problem of extremism started by it under General Zia. General Kayani should have stood up and refused to take the responsibility to tackle a problem he has no inclination to confront. Indeed, he is disinterested in taking power and toppling governments but he should have stated clearly that problems such as Hazara-killing would continue as a part of anti-Americanism and the doctrine of strategic depth.

The Hazara leaders of Quetta claim that nearly 600 members of their community have been killed since 1999.

The News of 7 October 2011, reported that over 13,000 members of the community lived in Karachi, 600 in Hussain Hazara Goth, where the imambargah is located. Rickety roads and mud-plastered houses surrounded the slum while increasingly the inhabitants feared for their lives. One said, 'We are being targeted because extremists want to eliminate Shias. Also, our community, especially in Balochistan, is among the most literate and educated. They envy us. Our people are in the police, government and everywhere. Out of the four female pilots, one is from our community'.

Comments (26 comments)

A lot of appreciation for khalid ahmed for this good article, Hazaras hv been living with the Baloch and pashtuns for centuries, this new phenomenon of LeJ, is outsider. it has followers in Quetta but it is rooted outside Quetta. besides jundUllah, Quetta shura, are fishing in the dirty waters. and certainly the present situation of Baloch insurgency, IP gas pipeline, and ever present hunting parties of the Arabs in the far flung areas of Balochistan, dolling money to propagate their brand of religion all are lethal mix, and certainly not conducive for the Hazara well being. needs help from brothers like Khalid Ahmed to highlight our plight, tanx

Posted: Saturday, May 05, 2012 by qamber ali khan from islamabad

After having gone through this artical became very happy about ratio of education, business, IT etc but although hazara nations are well educated, well dressed, good business men in afghanistan and pakistan, but political we are zero, in afghanistan we depend at one man personality like muhaqiq and khalily and in pakistan a we have the best political party but due to high ratio of education all hazaras of pakistan knew every thing they cannot bear HDP to represent hazaras fundamentals political rights. Tamki

Posted: Friday, November 18, 2011 by shaukat tamki from indonesia

What goes around that turns arond. History will repeat itself and there will be no place to hide- for those who are holding the power today. afterall Mullah Omer thought the same!

Posted: Thursday, November 10, 2011 by Hazara abroad from Kabul

Asalam o Alaikum,i am glad to read the article and the comments, i am sure by this courage that we all have no one can defeat us, it needs only little more courage and prayers, wish u all, the best, long live hazara!!!!! Please dont forget to pray Allah solves every thing dont forget him, and plz all pray for me as well

Posted: Saturday, November 05, 2011 by Masooma from Australia

I did not believe that someone was so uppdated about hazaras. Although some small errors which is acceptable keeping in view the possibility of getting right information in the country. But someone who dare to write in the present environment in that country. Seemed quite surprising. But the general view is that it is the extremists but i think it is the ISI himself who is killing the poeple like the 'hatora group' was doing for a couple of dacades ago. The reason behind all these killings in my opinion is to get the taliban/pashtoons of afghanistan out of isolaction in post american invasion to bring back the taliban in power. It is easy to kill hazaras in Pakistan to presure the hazaras in Afghanistan to change side. Taliban are not in the hazara areas to know every movement of hazaras in their mohallas but ISI is everywhere. They are even in every street of hazaras and know everything and have the information and resources to stop the particular buss in which just hazaras are travelling. For stopping these killings needs to pressure ISI to stop, these Jhangvi and taliban are just the cover ups.

Posted: Friday, November 04, 2011 by Javed from Sweden

A very nice article with some slightly miskates.. Good job any way.

Posted: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 by Javed from Australia

Thanks Khaled Ahmed really you have pointed out the facts and we appreciate your affords towards peace ,God bless you everywhere and we hope your writing power will go ahead,thanks once again ,wish you good luck and long live

Posted: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 by Rahjo Hamid from Brussels

While it should be clear that neither Baloch Nationalist nor Pashtoon nationalists are involved in such acts of terror, Dawood Badini and Saifullah Kurd are not true representatives of Baloch people and not even this is a shia-sunni clash between locals......but local Pashtoon as well Baloch community will have to come out and stand by Hazaras and openly condemn these inhumane acts otherwise the misunderstandings and ill-perceptions will lead the once-peaceful Quetta (City of tribal brothers) into deep chaos that will be in the benefits of none but the masterminds of these perpetrators.

Posted: Monday, October 31, 2011 by CHANGEZI from Islamabad

I appreciate Mr. Khaled Ahmed, one of the few brave journalists to have taken out his pen on such issues which are even avoided by top politicians. I also appreciate the readers and say they have made quite critical readings and correctly corrected the brave journalist on some occasions.... Mir Wais Turi, Khan and Chaigram and Rafee Kakar have contributed positively..

Posted: Monday, October 31, 2011 by CHANGEZI from Islamabad

I absolutely agree with Mirwais Turi..being a resident of Quetta, I can prove it with evidence that it is the Pashtuns who have raised voice against the brutal killing of Hazaras in Quetta..No other political party has conducted so many protests and rallies against the killing of Hazaraas as the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party..Its sad to see such wrong facts from a person like Khaled Ahmed

Posted: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 by Rafiullah Kakar from Quetta

Just wanted to rectify some facts Mr SAAD JAAN quoted that Quaid Azam and Allama Iqbal were Shias.Quaid Azam was born in a Khoja Ismaili family who had migrated to Karachi from Ismaili dominated area of Gujrat to then ismaili dominated area of Kharadar Karachi.Allama Iqbal was also not a Shia however one thing was common in both of them was they were preaching a message of Islam and Ummah! Dialogue was their weapon.Alas religous fanatics and hardcore Islamist militant are killing minorities and particularly Hazara tribe of Shia faith. I think only condemning these militant outfits wont be suffice but to do some thing practical to eradicate this malefac.

Posted: Monday, October 24, 2011 by Wajahat Ali from Gilgit

While the bulk of the article is spot on, there is one very important point neglected in this article. The ethnic cleansing against Hazaras in particular and Shias in general, is mainly perpetrated by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, who are Punjabi, not Pashtun. Yes, the Pashtun Taliban and the Hazaras are enemies, but the Pashtun/Hazara conflict is political in nature. Pashtuns have sought their vengeance on the Hazaras mainly in battle. That's not to say that they are angels. But it does mean that should the Hazaras not stand in the way of Taliban take over of Afghanistan, there will not be conflict between the communities. However, the perpetrators of crime of ethnic cleansing against the Hazaras do so for no other reason than to kill. And the original sinners of this crime are the Punjabi leaders of LeJ.

Posted: Sunday, October 23, 2011 by Get Real from USA

I think its a good article, though with some mistakes which are beautifully corrected by mirwais hussain turi.

Posted: Sunday, October 23, 2011 by turidoc from KSA

Hazaras Are not abandoning Pakistan its not true and do not think we willl leave pakistan its out country..and dont expose such kind of rumors on Our Hazara Community

Posted: Saturday, October 22, 2011 by Hazara from Pakistan

Rerer to 1800's Persecution of Hazara in the days of Abdur Rehman, the Amir of Afghanistan, thousands of innocent Hazara were killed. According to that time about 60 percent of Hazara's were killed and a statement was from Abdur Rehman regime was that they had finished Hazara but impossible..30 September 2011 proved in 24 countires of the world that Hazara's are united and will be more stronger, Though every single citizen of Quetta city knows what is going on and whome are doing all this things..this current situation of Quetta city is a signal for all the other nations living in Quetta city they are playing their role like dead audience, an extrimist group is killing us saying Kafir and other Balochistani brothers are giving them shalter, tomorrow this Fitwa will be for any one else from them, and a request from all other nations of Quetta city that please get ride of religous extermisim. come close we are the people to keep clean our city from this extremist groups.they didn't belong to any nation their Emman is just Doller and Derham..

Posted: Saturday, October 22, 2011 by Mukhtar Hussain from Quetta

Persecution of Hazara people started in the days of Abdur Rehman, the Amir of Afghanistan in the 1800's, tens of thousands of innocent Hazara civilians were massacred and tens of thousands were subjected to force mass migration, their agriculture lands and properties were given to the Pushtun Kochies, these symbol terror kochies have permission to graze their animals on the lands of hazara people, and every year hundreds of kochies along with thousands of livestock swarm into the pasture of Hazarajat and carry out massacre of innocent Hazara civilians on resistance.The prime aim of the so called iron Amir of Afghanistan was to eliminate the Hazara nation from Afghanistan which all of his successors followed after him.The problem of the majority but I must say not all the Pushtuns is that they can not see and digest a non Pushtun dominated rule in Afghanistan, on the other hand Hazara community living in Pakistan is victim of two edge sword, ethnic as well as sectarian, the racist elements carry out their operations under the cover of sectarianism , the recent waves of terrorism against the Hazara community in Quetta Pakistan is an obvious example of that mind set.

Posted: Saturday, October 22, 2011 by SAAD JAAN from Karachi

Reading all the above information stated by Khaled Ahmed shows that those people are wanting Pakistan to be the graveyard for the Shi'its especially Hazaras. By killing the Shi'its they destroy the economy strength and educational strengths of Pakistan. These people wants to make Pakistan as an Afghanistan a graveyard, but they don't know that they are playing with the fire or better to say that they are putting there hand in the fire. They don't know that Shi'its are waiting for the order of there ulamas to take weapons in there hands and make the situation reverse. They are working with patience and legal ways but they don't know if Shi'its started taking revenge the things are going to worse and they will find no place to hide. But the thing which has stopped the Shi'its is development of Pakistan. Shi'its want Pakistan to be a developed country but those insurgents are not letting it to be. The founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a shia and all the great leaders of Pakistan were Shi'its and most important thing that the famous poet of Pakistan Mr. Allama Iqbal was Shi'it. One thing more that Hazaras have no relations with Turi except their shia faith.

Posted: Friday, October 21, 2011 by Ali Raza from Afghanistan

It is pathetic! Branding themselves clean and pure while eliminating their fellow country men. I see no example that our nabi ever raised is sword on fellow citizens of Madinah, irrespective if they were Christians an Jews. But then, these are the people who claim to be pure can not read or write. Example mulla umar, never studied beyond grade 4.

Posted: Friday, October 21, 2011 by Chaigram from toronto Canada

Anybody, who is in touch with the history of Afghanistan, and Pak-Afghan border, will certainly disagree that Pak- Army is not the only force holding on to Pashtun card in Afghanistan. There are many stake holders who see KPK, parts of Baluchistan and Afghanistan, through “pashtun goggle” for dividing the ideological state of Pakistan. Similarly, futuristic dimensions of Pakistan’s foreign Policy need settlement of Hazara people in Pakistan for leverage in the area: hence, protection of such people should be the top priority of Pakistan. Their “ethnic cleansing”, on the soil of Pakistan, is yet another aspect of the war on terror and should be seen in proper persepective.

Posted: Friday, October 21, 2011 by khan from London

The establishment wants to empower the religious fanatics in Balochistan to counter the secular Baloch secessionist forces. The Baloch are by and large very liveral and secular - Hindus and Zikri Baloch have been living in harmony side-by-side for centuries. The Establishment has promoted radicalism in Balochistan after 1979 (Iran revolution) with Saudi funding - thus an army of brain washed maadrassah students who have graduated are now on a killing spree. The objective of the establishment in supporting these Islamist radicals is two fold: - Keep Iranian influence in check (which is a fallacy as Iran and Hazaras have a rough history - look up how Hazaras of Afghanistan are disillusionised by Tehran - as Iran supported the Tajiks in the Afghan jihad) - Subdue the secular Baloch and control the province through religion. P.S - Hazaras and Turis are two seperate ethnic groups (Turis being Pushtuns) - sharing religion. Although Hazaras also have Sunnis in them (most Hazara Sunnis are in Afghanistan). Also, there are some Hazara population in the Kurram agency as well.

Posted: Friday, October 21, 2011 by Haider Changezi from Dubai

Yeah .. Hazara's are NOT Turi's .. But their are Hazara's living in Parachinar and overall the Kurram Agency ... That's the reason Turi's/Bangashi's come and reside in Hazara inhibited areas of Quetta ... And Also Turi/Bangash Students Come and Find Hostel in Hazara Goth and Hazara Colony In Karachi ...

Posted: Friday, October 21, 2011 by Hazheer Hazara from Lahore

I totally agree with Mr. Khalid Ahmed. This article might have been written after a lot of research about Hazaras. Nothing is hidden from the eyes of public, in response to Hazaras killing in Mastung Balochistan CM says I will send truck-full of tissue papers to families of those who are killed in Mastung. Governor Magsi and former Police IG says, he knows the killers but can't do anything because the higher authority interrupt whenever they take any action against them. In future Hazaras will also hold weapons to save their lives and then government will soon see a mini Rwanda in Quetta as well as in other parts where Shia killings are in full swing. Choice is easy: stop accepting aid from Saudi government and other gulf countries, stop preaching of ban groups like LeJ, SSP and others, arrest all Ulemas whose Fatwas have created these killings OR wait until Pakistan is divided into 100 pieces by these terrorists.

Posted: Friday, October 21, 2011 by Liaqat Ali from New York

Moreover,the conflict in Kurram agency against turis is not simply that of shia and sunny.The real reason for the massacre of my tribe is the intention of the pakistani state to interfere in Kabul.If you see a map of pakistan and Afghanistan,you can clearly see that the nearest part of FATA to kabul is Kurram agency.Now the fact is that the the routes through which one gets from Kurram agency into Afghanistan are inhabited by the Turi shias and they are increasingly hostile to the terrorist Haqqani network so it is a nightmare for the haqqani network to pass through these areas to attack Kabul.The real reason for the massacre of the Turis is that the taliban and the pakistan army wants the turi tribe to provide safe passageway to the taliban but the Turis are reluctant,hence the massacre of Turis.

Posted: Friday, October 21, 2011 by mirwais hussain turi from peshawar

Sorry, i meant 'they don't want a pashtun govt in AFGHANISTAN''.i wrote pakistan instead.

Posted: Friday, October 21, 2011 by mirwais hussain turi from peshawar

''It(pak army) sees Afghanistan through the Pashtun goggle and that means letting the Shia be put to the sword''.That is just plain wrong.Pak army sees afghanistan through punjabi goggles.They want a govt in Afghanistan that is subservient to the punjabi empire that pakistan is.Because lets face it,who needs strategic depth against india in afghanistan?clearly punjab,because the pashtuns and the baloch have no direct conflict with india because we were never indians.punjabis on the other hand are in constant danger of being swallowed by the indians because the punjabis actually ARE indians and have a history of massacres with them in 1947.That is why the pak army sees Afghanistan through terrorist goggles.They don't want a Pashtun govt.in pakistan(as the writer has suggested).They want a Fundamentalist govt so that they can manipulate their religious sentiments when the time for conflict with india comes. As for my tribe 'Turi',ofcourse we had skirmishes with the Sunni pashtuns before but it was never in huge proportions before 1980's.It was the Pakistani state's policy to fund and promote extremism in Pashtun area otherwise us Turis had very good relations with the Mangal and Bangash tribes of our beautiful Kurram agency.

Posted: Friday, October 21, 2011 by Mirwais hussain turi from peshawar

''In Kurram they are known are Turis''The Turi Pashtun tribe has nothing in common with the Hazara except their shia faith.Turis are ethnically pashtuns. ''their Pashtun tormentors'',''Hazaras of Quetta are bearing the brunt of Sunni-Pashtun reprisal''.That is a sweeping statement.Perhaps the writer conveniently forgot to mention that organisations that took the responsibility of killing the Hazaras are punjab based (Sepah-e-sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi).and he forgot to mention that these organisations have no mass base in the pashtun belt of Khyber pakhtunkhwa and balochistan.These terrorist organisations derive their strength from their Punjab strongholds.

Posted: Friday, October 21, 2011 by Mirwais hussain turi from peshawar