Dengarkan

The streets of Hazara are eerily silent... It’s midday but hardly anyone is out on the streets.
 
We’re in a residential area on the outskirts of Quetta.
 
Most of the residents are Hazaras, who fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan to escape the Taliban.
 
As I knock on the door of one of the most famous Hazara musicians in town, I notice someone watching us suspiciously through a small hole.
 
After a few minutes, 14-year-old Fareedon Yousafzada opens the gate.
 
Fareedon looks scared and immediately locks the door behind us.
 
Fareedon is the son of Habib Yousafzada, one of the most popular Hazara musicians in Quetta.

But he hardly sings now... he now runs a shop to earn money.

“Here in Pakistan, I found that everyone is against my son, my family and myself because we are Hazara. And people kill Hazara without any reason. We were also attacked because we’re musicians and people don’t like musicians here.”

The family fled from Afghanistan when the Taliban came to power in the 1990s.

But after moving to Pakistan, they’re still being attacked.

The group behind the violence is Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant group dedicated to attacking Pakistan’s Shia Muslim minority, which includes the Hazaras.

And according to them, music is un-Islamic.

Fareedon was attacked after participating in a music event for the Hazara community last year.

“One evening, two young people knocked on my gate. When I opened the gate and came out, they asked ‘Are you Fareedon?” I didn’t say anything and they started beating me. One of them shot me. I rushed towards the house to save myself and then they got on their bike and rode away. I still feel pain all over my body.”

Many of Pakistan’s Hazaras tried to seek refuge in Australia...

But Fareedon and his father couldn’t afford to go.

“My father is a musician and I’ve been looking after him since I was very young. I love music and I’ve tried hard to learn music. I want to be a good musician one day and be respected by our society.”

According to historians, the Hazaras are being targeted because they’re ethnically different and easily recognised by their physical features.
 
Muhammad Idrees is a Hazara journalist. He was forced to quit his job with a private TV channel because he’s seen as a threat.
 
He says Hazara musicians are being discriminated against.
 
“In Shia, we don’t ban music. Many of the most popular singers and musicians in Pakistan are Hazaras. But with hundreds of Hazaras killed or injured, young people are turning against music concerts. They’re fundamentalists who prefer to have religious meetings instead of music concerts. They’re calling people who organise music concerts infidels.”

Tayaba Sahar is a prominent poet who writes predominantly about the hardships of the Hazaras.

She’s concerned that parents won’t allow their children, especially girls, to go out of the house anymore because they fear for their safety.

“I have written poems describing the government and the international community as silent spectators,  doing nothing about the situation facing the Hazara community. They don’t pay attention to us. I have also described the horrific situation in a comic.”

On January this year, at least 120 people were killed in a twin suicide bomb attack on a crowded snooker club. A month later, dozens more died in an explosion at a market.

The Pakistan government boosted security in Quetta following the incidents.

But no one has yet been arrested for the bombings and killings.

Hadeela Fiza is a 9-year-old student in the 4th grade.

She’s studying in a special school for the Hazara community in Quetta and is now practicing a new poem.
 
“I would like to share the grievances and miseries of the Hazara people with the rest of the world through my writing. I will also raise my voice if I get any chance to fight for the Hazaras, even if it’s a debate, poetry, music, or any other form.”

But many fear that they will have to wait a long time before they hear Hazara musicians perform again.

“I want people to forget their misery while listening to my music. I would like to sing for sad people. But some don’t like this and they’re threatening us. I’m afraid as I know they could kill me... but I love my music too. I want to live with music until I die.”