Time for Shias to leave Pakistan

[LETHALFORCE]

It is a massacre alright. Sunni extremists, aligned with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, are killing Shias by the dozens in Pakistan.

I was yet to compile the list of the 106 (mostly Shias) killed in the twin bomb blasts in Quetta last month, that the news of another bomb blast killing yet another 84 (mostly Shias) in Quetta came over the wire. As the Shia massacres in Pakistan gain momentum, the State, including the Superior Courts, appear completely impotent.

In such troubling times some Shias may have a choice. They may sit and wait for a messiah or relocate to a Shia-exclusive enclave elsewhere, or to escape from Pakistan altogether. It may sound harsh, but it is an inescapable truth that Pakistan has been run over by the extremists and life is going to be even tougher for the minorities and moderate Sunnis in the near future.

In the two consecutive months this year, bomb blasts have killed hundreds of Shia Hazaras in Quetta, a Garrison town where each and every street is manned by intelligence operatives. Still, the militants operate with impunity. Saturday's bomb blast, which has killed over 80 and injured hundreds, occurred almost within a month of the last bomb blast that delivered even a higher death toll.

Space is fast running out in Shia graveyards in Quetta. It may be the time for Shias to relocate to protect their next generation.

Many naively believe that peace will prevail in Pakistan and Afghanistan after the scheduled withdrawal of Nato troops from Afghanistan in 2014. While I vehemently oppose prolonging the stay of the Nato forces in the region, still I believe this would spell even a bigger disaster for the minorities in Pakistan. The battle-hardened veterans of the Afghan war will return to Pakistan to target Shias, Ahmadis, and other religious minorities. Even Barelvis may not escape the wrath of the mostly Deobandi-led militancy.

There are reasons for my pessimism. I saw the same happen in the late nineties when the Afghan war veterans were pushed into Indian-administered Kashmir. The resulting militancy left over 70,000 dead in Kashmir but failed to make any tangible progress towards the resolution of the dispute that has pitched India, Pakistan, and Kashmiris in a deadly decades old conflict.

What looked like a gory beginning of a new millennium in Indian-administered Kashmir, the security landscape however suddenly transformed in 2002 when the militants started to relocate to Pakistan and Afghanistan to join the Pashtun Taliban. The result was a decline in militancy which is evident from the graph below that shows the drop in the number of news reports about militancy in Srinagar starting after 2002.

A spike in militancy in Pakistan however is observed at the same time when militancy subsided in Indian-administered Kashmir. See the graph below that documents the number of civilians and security force personnel who became victims of terrorist violence in Pakistan. Since 2003, Pakistan has been the target of terrorism orchestrated by the very agents who once afforded the state its strategic depth.

Shias and other religious minorities are the most targeted in Pakistan. No city is safe anymore. The past few weeks saw the targeted killing of Shia lawyers, doctors, and other professionals in Peshawar. Shia legislators were shot dead in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi. While the State is struggling to suppress violence against Shias, the deep-rooted support for militants in society and the inadequate judicial system in Pakistan has created the situation where hardly any terrorist has been convicted of sectarian or other terrorism in Pakistan. In the past few years, several known militants have been set free by the courts because of the archaic judicial system that is incapable of convicting those involved in the modern-day guerilla warfare.

Some, not all, Shias have a choice. They can abandon the death traps in Quetta and Peshawar by relocating to the Shia majority areas in Karachi, Lahore, and other cities. A better option is to plead with the embassies in Islamabad for asylum for the Shia, especially the Hazara, youth.

Seeking asylum abroad may not win the approval of Pakistan's superior courts, who have recently mocked those who held dual citizenship. However, it is better to be alive in exile than to be splattered on a wall in Pakistan.

 

[Bhadra]

Leave Pakistan and go where?

You mean Iran or Lucknow.

 

[Yusuf]

Dawoodi Bohras are already leaving. Destination UK or African countries like Kenya, Tanzania.

 

[Daredevil]

How about splitting Pakistan in three. Shias on one side, Sunnis on side and remaining on the other.

What's perplexing is Kayani, being a Shia, is doing nothing to stem this tide.

 

[gokussj9]

How about splitting Pakistan in three. Shias on one side, Sunnis on side and remaining on the other.

What's perplexing is Kayani, being a Shia, is doing nothing to stem this tide.

Is the army behind all these massacres to create chaos and bring their rule? But I think
according to Kerry-Lugar bill, the $1.5 Billion will come only when there is a democratic government
in Pak.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

It is only a matter of time until Chinese become targets of these kind of attacks.

 

[JBH22]

Leaving Pakistan that's their choice but certainly not to bring their sorry a$$es to INDIA.

 

[Bhadra]

How about splitting Pakistan in three. Shias on one side, Sunnis on side and remaining on the other.

What's perplexing is Kayani, being a Shia, is doing nothing to stem this tide.

In quetta they are killing Hazara being suspect of sympathisisng with Afghanistan.

Hazaras have always been at receiving end in Pakistan from time immomorial.

 

[gokussj9]

It is only a matter of time until Chinese become targets of these kind of attacks.

They have already been (abducted and killed) which forced the PAk Army to take action on Lal Masjid. I think TTP was born after that incident.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Pakistan are good with their timing with Iran and Syria engaged in other problems this presented a
perfect opportunity for the Pakistanis to commit genocide against the shiites without worry of any
outside help from shiite nations.

 

[Yusuf]

Leaving Pakistan that's their choice but certainly not to bring their sorry a$$es to INDIA.

I don't think they are thinking about India.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

They have already been (abducted and killed) which forced the PAk Army to take action on Lal Masjid. I think TTP was born after that incident.

It will happen again how long will the land of the pure allow heathen pork loving kafirs
to roam freely?

 

[Bhadra]

There is a good Novel on the plight of Hazaras of Pakistan:

The Kite Runner
By Khaled Husseni


a good prize winning novel...

 

[LETHALFORCE]

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Angry residents on Sunday demanded government protection from an onslaught of attacks against Shiite Muslims, a day after 81 people were killed in a massive bombing that a local official said was a sign that security agencies were too scared to do their jobs.

Saturday's blast at a produce market in the city of Quetta also wounded 160 people and underlined the precarious situation for Shiites living in a majority Sunni country where many extremist groups don't consider them real Muslims.

Most of the dead and wounded were Hazaras, an ethnic group that migrated from Afghanistan over a century ago. Shiite Muslims, including Hazaras, have often been targeted by Sunni extremists in the province of Baluchistan where Quetta is the capital, the southern city of Karachi and northwestern Pakistan.

At the blast site, members of the Hazara community helped authorities dig through rubble to find the dead or survivors. Most of their efforts were focused on a two-story building that was completely destroyed. More than 20 shops nearby were also demolished.

Clothing and shoes were scattered through the concrete rubble, broken steel bars and shattered wooden window frames littering the streets.

One of those helping, 40-year-old Qurban Ali, was instructing young people to be patient and careful while removing the rubble, lest they hurt themselves or survivors still buried in the debris. His cousin Abbas was still missing after the blast.

Like many Hazaras, he lashed out at the people who perpetrated the violence.

"Who are these people who made us Hazara so grim and sad? Why are they after us?" he asked. "Not one month or week passes here without the killing of a member of the Hazara community "¦ Why is the government — both central and provincial — so lethargic in protecting Shiites?"

Near the rubble, a group of more than 50 women were wailing and beating their heads in mourning.

On the road to the neighborhood where the attack occurred, Hazara youth burned tires and chanted for the arrests of the killers. A number of Shiite groups also staged a sit-in and were demanding the immediate removal of the chief secretary of Baluchistan and the top police official, said Rahim Jaffery, who heads a Shiite organization called the Council for the Protection of Mourning.

"We are demanding the city (protection) be handed over to the army so that the killing of Hazara Shiites can be stopped," he said.

Jaffery said a mass funeral for the victims had been planned for Sunday afternoon but all Shiite groups were meeting to decide whether to stage a protest similar to one in January when they refused to bury their dead for four days.

That protest led the prime minister to sack the chief minister of the province and his cabinet and put Governor Zulfiqar Magsi directly in charge of the region — a move that many Shiites thought would help protect their community. But the governor's comments revealed his frustration at a job growing ever more difficult.

Magsi said the blast was the result of a failure of the security and intelligence agencies in the province.

"Officials and personnel of these institutions are scared (of the terrorists). Therefore they don't take action against them," he said in comments that were broadcast on local television.

A militant group called Lashkar-e-Jhangvi called one local television station to claim responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan's intelligence agencies helped nurture Sunni militant groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in the 1980s and 1990s to counter a perceived threat from neighboring Iran, which is mostly Shiite. Pakistan banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in 2001, but the group continues to operate fairly freely in their war against Shiites.

Last year was particularly deadly for Shiites in Pakistan. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 400 were killed in targeted attacks across the country. The human rights group said more than 125 were killed in Baluchistan province, most of whom belonged to the Hazara community.

Human rights groups have accused the government of not doing enough to protect Shiites.

 

[Bhadra]

Watch this :

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Genocide of Pakistan's Hazara community


Life for minority communities in Pakistan has never been great. Drive-by shootings, bomb attacks, lynchings, and assassinations targeting members of religious and ethnic minorities are ubiquitous in the nuclear armed state, established in the name of Islam to protect Muslims.


The persecution of religious minorities such as Christians, Hindus, Shias, and Ahmedis often makes it into the international media and is discussed domestically, especially when major massacres occur. However, the on-going genocide being directed at the Hazara community in Pakistan seems to have attracted very little international media attention and even less domestic political attention. No-one seems to know what is going on and no-one seems to care.

The Hazara community in Pakistan is approximately 950,000 strong, with most living in the Baluchistan province. They are a highly visible ethnic minority as well as religious minority. They are largely Shia, speak a Persian dialect known as Dari, and have Central Asian features as opposed to South Asian.

In the past 10 years, there have been around 120 major attacks on members of the Hazara community which have resulted in around 800 deaths and over 1500 injuries. Though some attacks have targeted high-profile community members, around one-third of the victims have been children. In 2012 alone there were 56 attacks. A further 300 Hazaras have died trying to flee Pakistan for the safety of other countries, mainly Australia since it has an established Hazara community.

The more shocking aspect of this on-going genocide is that the Hazara community has no idea why it is being targeted or by whom. They are not calling for independence or autonomy, nor are they engaged in any political struggle. They are largely a peaceful people concerned with nothing more than earning a living and making a contribution to their country.

Fingers have been pointed at al Qaeda-linked extremists groups in Pakistan such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and other Taliban-linked groups have claimed some attacks in the past. Indeed, during the Taliban reign in neighbouring Afghanistan, the Hazara, due to them being Shia Muslims, were routinely targeted and many massacres took place. But this doesn't seem a sufficient explanation since, according to some estimates, up to 20 percent of the Pakistani population is Shia; so why seek out the Hazara in particular?

Now, I'm not one for conspiracy theories but in Pakistan nothing is simple and things are rarely what they seem. In the case of the Hazara community, the reality of their plight could be far more disturbing than what is revealed in a cursory glance.

The vast majority of the Hazara community in Pakistan resides in the Baluchistan province and most of the attacks seem to take place when Hazaras are travelling though Baluch-dominated areas. Baluchistan is also in the midst of an independence struggle that the Pakistani military is seeking to crush by any means necessary.

In light of the above, an increasing number of Hazaras are starting to believe that they are victims of a dirty game. Is it possible that the Punjabi-dominated Pakistani military establishment is trying to ferment ethnic tensions between the Hazara and the Baluch in the hope of distracting and obstructing Baluch separatists?

After all, the Pakistani military establishment does have a good relationship with groups like Lashkar-e-Jhanvi and it is believed to be sheltering members of the Afghan Taliban in the Baluchistan area. It also has a long and illustrious history of using jihadist outfits to do its dirty work in places such as Kashmir and Afghanistan.

According to Muhammad Younas, writing for Wahdat News, no terrorists have ever been convicted for killing members of the Hazara community in Pakistan and even those that are apprehended are quickly released without charge. Police officers claim to receive calls from high-up, asking them to release any detained suspects immediately. In some cases, suspected terrorists have even escaped from so-called maximum security prisons in Quetta with relative ease and gone on to kill more members of the Hazara community.

It is possible that the Hazara are pawns in a dirty game and I certainly wouldn't put it past the Pakistani military establishment. It is also possible that jihadist outfits have simply been given free rein, since they are considered strategic assets, to target and kill those who they consider infidels. The jihadists could also be punishing the Hazara community for supporting international efforts to oust the Taliban from power in 2001.

Whatever the truth, and it's often difficult to tell in Pakistan, the international community needs to do more to highlight the plight of the peace-loving Hazara community and put pressure on the Pakistani government to take attacks against them seriously.

The Pakistani public also needs to demand more action from its government whilst pushing for them to weaken the role of the insidious military establishment given that it is the root cause of many of its woes.

 

[JBH22]

I don't think they are thinking about India.

Good then

Anyway what's the hate about hazaras in Afghanistan also they are hated? treated as non muslims

 

[Bhadra]

Hazaras in Afghanistan:

[video]http://www.joshuaproject.net/profiles/maps/m12076_af.pdf[/video]

 

[afako]

It is only a matter of time until Chinese become targets of these kind of attacks.

Slaves of Allah already have attacked Chinese Brothels (Beauty Parlour in disguise).

Chinese Businessmen were Shot down in Pindi and Quetta.

 

[Shirman]

why only Shias...........also let Hindu, Sikh, Paki Christians be told to leave PAKI-LAND.......LET ONLY there be Sunni so that Wahhabi make them slaves for all that Kafeel work in GCC countries n in turn Sunnis all around the world get humiliated n ashamed thanks to paki-sunnis.......:thumb: