The Minority Hazara Community in Pakistan:

"Two recent attacks killed more than 200 people from a Shia community in Pakistan earlier this year. The main victims were the Hazara, a minority Shia group in a Sunni-dominated country."

Two recent attacks killed more than 200 people from a Shia community in Pakistan earlier this year. The main victims were the Hazara in Quetta, a minority Shia group in a Sunni-dominated country.
 
Last year, more than 400 Shias were killed, making it one of the bloodiest years for Pakistan’s Shia community.
 
Alamdar Road is the silent witness of the blodshed in the city of Quetta. It has a small market with shops on both sides of the road, and leads to a residential area where the Hazara community live.

In January this year, this was was the site of a three-day sit in protest after a bomb blast which killed over 100 people.

The Hazaras refused to burry the dead bodies, which were still lying on the ground, until the government agreed to ensure their safety. 

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Now security on the road is tight and army personal check everybody entering the market.
 
Merza Muhammad Hassan is a journalist with the international media who witnessed the bomb blast.

“There were dead bodies and injured people lying all around us. It was a huge blast and people fell to the ground soon after the blast. I thought that everyone had been killed. It was a painful incident and there was no one who would carry the injured or dead bodies away. I thought that I was going to die on the spot too.”
 
He has been taking pictures of the Hazara community for his news agency.  He wants to show what it’s like to be a Hazara – a minority Shia group in a Sunni-dominated country.
 
“I felt like everything in my life had been destroyed when I heard about the death of my brother,” he says.

“Since his death, Quetta city has become hell for us. We can’t even go to the market. We can’t even go out of the house to work and have to stay inside at home all day long. I don’t know when the situation will get back to normal for us so that we can live our lives here again.”

There are about 800 thousand Hazaras in Pakistan, who make up about 20% of the country’s population. More than half of them live in Quetta.
 
An armed Sunni group called the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claims responsibilities for the bombings which hit a predominantly Hazara area of the city. Last year, the group issued a death threat to all Hazara Shias in Quetta. 

And they vowed to carry out attacks to force the Hazaras to leave the city.
 
According to historians, the Hazara are being targeted because they’re ethnically different and easily recognised by their physical features. To date, it’s estimated that the persecution of Hazaras in Quetta has left at least 800 dead and more than 1500 wounded. 

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Rukhsana Bibi lost her children in the bomb blast in January this year. Hanging on the wall inside her home, there’s a picture of her three dead sons.
 
“I cry every time I hear the sound of a motorcycle as it reminds me of my son,” she recalls.

“I feel like my son has come to take me home from school. I asked people at school not to make any motorcycle sounds while I’m still there. I’m so sad I lost my three sons in the bomb blast.”

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

Most of the Hazaras say the government is not serious about finding the culprits, but government officials say they have arrested some people responsible for the attack.

Daud Agha is the President of the Baluchistan Shia Conference.  As a Hazara, he urges the government to do something... and soon.
 
“It is the state’s responsibility to provide security to its citizens and we want our state to provide security for us before we take any other steps. We, the Shiites throughout the world, will ask the United Nations for the support and security that Pakistan has so far failed to provide us with.”
 
The Quetta grave yard is full of mourners, including Rukhsana Bibi.

She prays for a good life ahead as her daughter-in-law is now 6-month pregnant.

“I’m sure that it’s a boy. I will name him Farman Ali and I pray that Allah will help me so that I’m able to support my grandchildren when they don’t have anyone else.”

Visit our photo gallery of Hazara community in Quetta taken by our correspondents Mudassar Shah and Shadi Khan Saif. 

• Pakistan
• Hazara
• Shia
• genocide
• Mudassar Shah
• Shadi Khan Saif
• eng