Hazara People International Network

Hazaras do not join any demostration against US-Afghanistan strategic agreement

Admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:43:06 +0000

Kabul branch of the Hazara People International Network has released a letter confirming that no Hazara people attend demonstration against US-Afghanistan strategic agreement. Iran and Pakistani supported groups have organized a demonstration against this agreement in Kabul, Afghanistan. Most of these groups such as Sheikh Muhammad Asif Mohsini’s group have close ties to Iranian secret service and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Right now, Asif Mohsisni who is an extremist Mullah from Kandahar is enjoying Iranian government’s hospitality in Iran.

Kabul branch of the Hazara People International Network says Hazaras work on their international unity to stop systematic crimes in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Millions of Hazaras are suffering genocide, forced displacement and discrimination in these countries.

Hazaras’ Canberra rally exposes violence in Quetta

Admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 09:47:40 +0000

Mark Goudkamp

On May 10, over 1000 Hazara-Australians converged on Canberra from across the country to protest the recent wave of killing of Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan and the Australian government’s failure to publicly condemn the killings.
Over 700 Hazara civilians have been killed in and around Quetta in the last ten years. But the killings are escalating, with 150 killed in the last two months. Hazaras are Shia Muslims while Afghanistan and Pakistan are predominately Sunni Muslim.
Sunni extremist groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Sipa-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), that issued a fatwa against Shia Muslims in 2004, have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks. But while the Pakistani government ostensibly bans such organisations, not a single person has been charged. It’s obvious that they receive tacit support and protection from elements of the Pakistani establishment.

Laurie Ferguson, Labor MP for Werriwa in Sydney’s Western suburbs, addressed the protest. While he was cheered for saying he would bring the “reign of terror conducted against Hazaras” to the attention of Foreign Minister Bob Carr (mind you, Carr had been invited to speak), Ferguson was silent about the abuses of the Gillard government which has demonised their arrival by boat, incarcerating thousands in detention centres and now threatens to deport them.
Two years ago the Labor Government suspended the processing of Afghan asylum seekers, and in 2011 it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Afghanistan’s Karzai government to allow forcible deportations of “failed” Afghan asylum seekers. But contrary to Australian government claims, the situation for Hazaras in Afghanistan hasn’t improved, and in Pakistan has deteriorated sharply.
In December 2011, over 100 mostly Hazaras were killed when a suicide bomber struck Shia mosques in Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif.
A pending High Court decision will soon determine whether the government can deport asylum seekers deemed to be “out of process”, including Ismail Mirza Jan, who the government moved to deport in November last year.
Last September, the government did deport Afghan asylum seeker Mohammed Ashraf to Quetta the day after his father was killed and five months after his son was shot and wounded in the Quetta cemetery. If the High Court goes in favour of the the government, many more face the same fate in the weeks ahead.
With chants of “Stop, stop killing Hazaras” and “Hazara rights are human rights”, the protest moved to the United Nations Information Office, before ending outside the Pakistan Embassy—the site of a ten day sit-in leading up to the protest. The turnout in Canberra was an enormous success, but more action like this will be needed to force the Gillard government to provide Hazaras with the protection they need. Hazara contingents at the World Refugee Day rallies in June could help forge links between the Hazara community and the refugee campaign and send a strong message.

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The world turns a blind eye to killing of Hazaras in Pakistan

Admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 08:18:49 +0000

By Abdul Hekmat

Imagine if the targets of Sydney’s drive-by shootings were not members of feuding bikie gangs but people singled out by virtue of their appearance to be shot dead while travelling to work by bus or car, shopping, attending a medical appointment or visiting relatives. It is beyond comprehension to imagine such a situation. Yet that is exactly what is happening to Hazaras in Pakistan. In recent years, armed terrorist groups have been targeting ordinary Hazara men, women and children on a weekly basis in Quetta, Pakistan. Over half a million Hazaras feel terrorized by these frenzy killings.

That is why on 10 May, over a thousand Hazara-Australians gathered in Canberra to protest against the systematic targeting of attacks on the Hazara community in Quetta, Pakistan. Men, women and children travelled by buses and cars from Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney. Marching from the Australian Parliament House to the UN office and then the Pakistani embassy, they chanted ‘we want justice,’ ‘we want security,’ ‘Hazara rights are human rights,’ and ‘why is the UN silent’?

The march was one of series of rallies organised by Hazaras around the world in the past few weeks; in Afghanistan, Pakistan, UK, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Italy, US, Canada and New Zealand.

A similar world-wide protest was organised last year but it fell on deaf ears. None of the world leaders, including Australia, have come out to condemn publically the terrorist attacks on innocent Hazara people in Pakistan.

The protest last week demanded the Australian government, public, and media to take notice of the genocide being perpetrated against Hazaras and pressure the Pakistani authority to crack down on terrorist groups.

Yet, the mainstream media in Australia has largely been silent in covering on this issue except SBS radio. Although there are a significant numbers of Hazaras in Australia they are frustrated that the plight of their family and friends in Pakistan is being ignored. The Hazara community in Australia is deeply affected by the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, now they are trying to show solidarity to those left behind through non-violence means.

It is this feeling of frustration and hopelessness that has taken so many Hazaras again onto the streets of many countries this year again.

Many of the Afghans seeking asylum in Australia and those already accepted fled persecution at the hands of terrorist groups either in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

As a Hazara from Afghanistan, I came to Australia in 2001 and have travelled to Pakistan twice since then. Each time, I witnessed violent attacks on Hazaras. The deadliest one was in September 2010 in which over 70 Hazaras were killed and over 200 wounded in a suicide bomb attack in Quetta. The house of my own relative, Ramzan Ali, was attacked by terrorists last August, killing over 12 people and injuring a few dozens. His family cowered under the rubbles miraculously survived.

However, in the past two years, the tactics have changed from suicide bombing to shootings where unknown gunmen fire on cars and buses that carry Hazara passengers.

There are nearly 600,000 Hazaras in Quetta some of whom had fled persecution in Afghanistan a century ago. There are also so many who have come to escape the Taliban. They are living in a state of terror and fear, waiting for the next moment to pass without incident. They are besieged in their own homes and areas.

Attacks since 2001 have produced a staggering human toll -over 700 have been killed and nearly 2000 injured. Not a single perpetrator who has been brought to justice by the provincial Baluchistan government. In fact, the Pakistani government is involved with the attackers. The Asian Human Rights Commissionimplicate Pakistan’s secret agency, the ISI, in financing and collaborating with terrorist organizations in Baluchistan, ‘Their main tasks include counter-insurgency, spread of Talibanization, sectarian violence, killings of Hazaras and Shias, attacks on NATO supply routes and targeting journalists and lawyers.’

The Chief Minister of Baluchistan, Nawab Raisani, has shown no sympathy for Hazara victims in the province for which he is responsible. He said in a recent comment to the media addressing the bereaved families ‘We will send over truckloads of tissue paper, so they can wipe out their sorry tears.’

In recent years, Quetta has become infested with extremist groups.After the collapse of the Taliban in 2001, Quetta which lies on the border of Afghanistan, has become a safe haven to Quetta Shura and members of the Taliban leadership including, Mullah Ommar.

Another terrorist group that freely operates in Quetta is Lashkar-e-Jhagavi (LeJ). The group has been responsible for violence against Hazaras.It is a banned by the UK, US and the Australian government.

This militant group shares strategic and ideological goals with the Taliban in Afghanistan. They consider that the Hazaras are not Muslim and their killing justified. LeJ distributed leaflet in Pakistan saying:

Just as our fighters [referring to the Taliban who massacred Hazaras in Afghanistan] have waged a successful Jihad against the Shiite Hazaras in Afghanistan, our mission in Pakistan is the eradication of this impure sect and its followers from every city, every village and every nook and corner of Pakistan.

There has been a spate of sectarian violence and terrorist attacks gripping the whole of Pakistan, targeting other minority groups like Ahmadi and Baluch. However, the Hazara situation is quite different for two reasons.

First, Hazaras, are easily identifiable because of their distinctive facial Mongol features. Last year in September, a group of 29 Hazaras travelling on a bus en route to Iran were forced to get off, leaving the non-Hazaras passengers, then lined up and shot in Mastung, Quetta.

Second, the Hazara are Shiite in a predominantly Sunni country. They have been attacked by Sunni extremist groups that view the Shiite as heretics. There are other ethnic groups in Pakistan who are Shiite (Shiite represent about 20% of population in Pakistan) but Hazaras bear the brunt of most the attacks in recent years because of their ethnicity (appearance).

The Sunni extremist ideology in Pakistan was cultivated under the military dictatorship of General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, 1977 to 1988, with the support of the United States to bolster fight against the Soviet Union. Zia Ul-Haq also had other purpose in mind in supporting the Sunni extremists; it was to counter the influence of Iranian 1979 revolution.

Also the Hazaras have been victims of regional players pitted one group against another. Saudi Arabia has been funding extremist Deobandi Sunnis and Wahabis in Pakistan since the Afghan Jihad while Iran supporting the Shiite militant groups such as Sipah-e-Muhammad. They were in fierce battle, attacking each other, causing many deaths.

Haqqani, the former ambassador to the US wrote in New York Times last week that Pakistan is the only country in the world that commemorated the anniversary of Osama Bin Ladin’s death.Thus we should all be concerned about the violence in, and the future of, a nuclear armed Pakistan. No one wants to see the terrorist groups who got free reign in Pakistan to get hold of nuclear bomb. Unimaginable things would happen.

The plight of Hazara maybe invisible to the world as they are not in the headlines but what is unfolding in Quetta is genocide with the implications for peace far beyond Pakistan. Hazaras stretch out their hands to the world and hope the human rights groups, governments and peace loving people will act soon before it is too late.

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Mission Hazaras: Target Killing Accomplished

Admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:54:45 +0000

By Mmrityunjay Nanda
At some point of time in your life you will realize that you have been emotionally debating around issues being unaware of its deep and diverse roots.When we see an act of brutal discrimination against a poor race, we start feeling squeamish and yell around what we witnessed. But believe me, you can never understand or experience the pain and torture that these Hazara people have been through since the birth of their race.

Hazaras are generally Persian-Speaking people who solely count themselves as Shia Muslim. This race finds its residence mostly in Afghanistan, Iran and Quetta of Pakistan. Quettais the largest city and provincial capital of Baluchistan where Baloch and Pashtun are the two main ethnic groups; the city holds a population of 13 million. Hazaras who live in Quetta are pretty poor in number, about half a millionin number currently and gradually losing their population due to unimpeded slaughtering and sectarian attacks. Because of their mere inhibited strength and lack of resources, these people are getting sandwiched between the Balochi and Pashtuns groups.

In 19th century, when Hazaras were evolving as a civilization, Emir Abdur Rahman Khan came in to power and slaughtered nearly half of them. Furthermore he plotted Sunni Muslims against Shias and the act of brutality is still flashing its red colour in the eyes of every Hazara. Even in 21st Century, the catastrophes have not stopped shadowing these tribes.Though worldwide protests have caught much foreign attention towards systematic discrimination, ethnic cleansing and genocide of Hazara people, but the number of massacres has not diminished yet. Where the racist tyrants keep on targeting them in broad daylight while the government is still dozing, lost in fantasy.You will be shaken when you will come to know that 2410 people have lost their lives only in Baluchistan since 2006. It’s also a matter of great disgrace that one-third of the victims are children.

Sunni extremist militant groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and terrorist groups like Baluchistan Liberation Army are held responsible for the slaughtering. These sectarian killers are targeting Hazaras in shops, market places, hotels, mosques, hospitals, in fact wherever they can get their hands on this marginalised race. If you are a Hazara then you will never know when and where a bullet will hit you and untied your soul from your mortal body. When you close your eyes at dusk, the dawn can only be described as an uncertain future.

A report displays that 85%, i.e. 454 people, have lost their lives in sectarian attacks out of total 534 casualties since September 2011 to 2012. I do fear, life out there has become just like a water bubble for these Shia Muslims.

Reacting to the situation a Pakistani citizen says, ‘‘something very corrupt and evil has seeped into the psyche of the country and appears to be spreading and it looks like no one cares.’’Law and enforcement system of the province -the only hope of these innocent people – refuses to lift a finger against it wherein the police forces are truly falling short before these man slaughters. No one is there even to throw a straw to these drowning tribes of Quetta.

Where it is suggested that Pakistani Military commands are immunizing these terrorist groups, there the involvement of Taliban’s Quetta, an Afghan-Taliban militant organization, can’t be excluded. When the chief minister of Baluchistan Nawab was questioned about the connection, he just replied with a funny statement,‘‘Look, I have heard of Quetta Shrove(soup), not the Quetta Shura’’. Replying to another question he added, ‘‘Why don’t you go and ask people why it is that they cry so?If they are going to cry like this, we will send them a truck load of tissue papers, so that they can wipe their sorry tears.’’

So it is crystal clear that these public servants are openly accepting their strong ignorance towards on-going sectarian attacks.But I really don’t understand the peculiar behaviour of these bureaucrats;is it because of fear, negligence, and incompetence or is it pure politics? Whatever it may be, but there are thousands of innocent lives still hanging in jeopardy and this has to stop.

I have truly no words to describe what Hazaras have been through but no one can deny that this is another heinous example of tactical barbarism in the pursuit of prejudice that the world has ever seen.

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2 Hazaras killed, 1 injured in Quetta attack

Admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:47:52 +0000

QUETTA: Genocide continue in Quetta as two more Hazaras were killed and one passerby was injured when unidentified gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on them in the Joint Road area of Quetta on Tuesday, Express News reported.
A police official said that the men were near the passport office on Joint Road when unidentified men on motorcycles targeted them, instantly killing the brothers, Mohammed Tahir and Mohammed Qadir and injuring a passerby.
The bodies and the injured man were shifted to Civil Hospital, whereas the police cordoned off the area and conducted a search operation for the suspects.

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‘In the Sea there are Crocodiles’ a frank, revealing, clear-eyed testament

Admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:04:38 +0000

“Facts are important. The story is important. It’s what happens to you that changes your life, not where or who with.”

One night before putting him to bed, Enaiaitollah’s mother tells him three things-don’t use drugs, don’t use weapons and don’t cheat or steal. The next day, he finds his mother gone and he is left all alone in Quetta with neither money in his hand or a home, nor the ability to speak the language of those around him. His mother goes back to Ghazni, in Afghanistan to take care of her youngest son.

For Enaiat is a Hazara, and the saying among the Taliban goes: “Tajikistan for the Tajiks; Uzbekistan for the Uzbeks and ‘Goristan’ for the Hazara.” Gor means “grave”, and brutal killing sprees of the Hazara are a regular occurrence. In order to save him from the permanent dangers of living at home, his mother has left him to fend for himself in another land where he might just have a chance of surviving without living forever in fear.
This book traces his journey from Afghanistan to Geda’s hometown-Italy. The memoir of an illegal, it describes the fear and insecurity, despair and nostalgia which refugees face, which forms the core of their journey to a new country. Along the journey, Enaiat endures the crippling physical and emotional agony of dangerous border crossings, trekking across bitterly cold mountain pathways for days on end or being stuffed into the false bottom of a truck. But not everyone is as resourceful, resilient, or lucky as Enaiat, and there are many heart-wrenching casualties along the way.

Enaiat talks about how there is a difference between the Afghans and the Taliban, how he believes that everyone should be treated the same ‘without asking for an identity card or religious affiliation’, which reveals his inquisitive mind and the ability to think in a manner more mature than that expected of a 10 year old. He reveals how although he liked hearing the children play about in the school yard as it gave him the freedom to imagine he was back home playing buzul-bazi in his native village Nava, he could not bear to watch them as they went to school.

Every scene is beautifully described as if it was part of a travelogue. His words-’I was starting to think that sleeping wasn’t a good idea, that maybe it was better to stay awake at night to avoid people close to me vanishing into thin air’, are filled with melancholy.

If Geda’s first-person rendition of Enaiatollah’s story were entirely fictional, it would more than stand up as a page-turner that makes you care about its hero from the outset of the story. That it is based on reality makes it more than just a compelling adventure story. This memoir is a frank, revealing and clear-eyed testament of the experiences faced by a young asylum-seeker in the contemporary world. An intimate oral history which is ultimately a story about hope and survival, this book is definitely worth a read.
‘Destination and destiny are very similar aren’t they?’

Title: In the sea there are Crocodiles; Author: Fabio Geda; Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

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Asylum Seekers Call for Justice – Australian Hazaras Protest Against Genocide in Pakistan and Afghanistan , May 10th Parliament House Canberra, United Nations and Pakistan Embassy.

Admin — Sun, 13 May 2012 19:40:37 +0000

Published on Independent Media Center Australia

On Thursday May 10th thousands of men, women and children from the peaceful, deeply spiritual and ancient race of Hazaras; a minority of Afghanistan, gathered from across Australia in our nation’s capital to have their voices heard.

They gathered to protest against the systematic and ever increasing genocide that is being committed against them particularly in Quetta Pakistan and also in Afghanistan. More than 700 hundred Hazaras have been killed for past several years in Quetta. Many of their influential individuals such as politicians, sportspersons, writers, doctors and social activists have been brutally targeted and murdered. Canberra’s protest joins the rolling worldwide protests by Hazaras in all major cities in the last month including London, Stockholm and Hamburg. http://www.hazarapeople.com/

A high proportion of today’s asylum seekers arriving in Australia are Hazaras desperate to escape war and the daily targeted killings against their community. The tragedy of the war in Afghanistan is doubled for Hazaras.

Having had to flee their homeland of Afghanistan since 1890s and more recently the mid 1990’s, to escape war and religious persecution, the Hazara are now refugees scattered across the globe. But many were and are only able to escape to neighbouring Pakistan. However once there they face a new terror.

The city of Quetta in Pakistan is now referred to as a headquarters for the Taliban and where many Hazara now try to live. http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,450605,00.html

The Hazara stand out in Quetta as different. They are ethnically different and they are Shia Muslim in a dominantly Sunni Muslim Pakistan. This difference has made them the target for Pakistani government condoned death squads and killings are taking place on a daily basis. Innocent Hazara are being murdered in their homes, workplaces and in the streets with so far not one of the perpetrators being brought to justice. The Pakistani government is reluctant to take any action to improve the situation in Quetta because the terrorism organization who openly accepts the responsibility for Hazara killings are vital for Pakistan survival.

When the Pakistani Chief Minister of Balochistan who is responsible for domestic security in the area was asked to take action against the Hazara killings he responded sarcastically by saying he would ‘send them a truckload of tissues for their tears.’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Hazara_people_in_Quetta
So far the Hazara have maintained a non-violent yet determined protest against this systematic genocide but how long must they suffer? For some Valentine’s Day is a day of love and fun but for Hazaras it is remembered as the Massacre of Afshar in 1993 when more than 1000 Hazara were killed near to Kabul. Mass rape also occurred and extreme torture. http://www.hazara.net/persecution/afshar.html

Through these recent protests they are asking the world community to act and take notice. No more genocide, no more murder. No more Pakistani government, UN and world community turning a blind eye or a deaf ear. Human Rights Watch and the Afghanistan Justice Project are attempting to keep a record of the atrocities and bring justice but they need further support. As does the Hazara community in Australia.

Another Bosnia….Another Srebrenica….Another Rwanda….. Another Pol Pot.

Lest We Forget.
Catherine Mpofu in support of the Hazara community.
catmpofu@gmail.com

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Worldwide Protest 2012: Canberra, Australia

Admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:26:43 +0000

RESOLUTION OF AUSTRALIAN HAZARAS ON THE GENOCIDE OF HAZARAS IN PAKISTAN

We, the Hazara people of Australia, strongly and loudly ask the Australian Government, the UN and the government of Pakistan to prevent the genocide in making of our people in Pakistan.

The definition of genocide according to both the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (article 3) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (article 6) is any act committed with the intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, this could be any act such as killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, inflicting conditions to bring about physical destruction in whole or in part.

There are about 600,000 Hazaras in Pakistan who are living through an ethnic cleansing carried out by the state supported terrorist and extremist organizations. The history of Hazaras in Pakistan goes back to late nineteenth century when more than half of the population of Hazaras was massacred in Afghanistan and a great number of them were forced to banish their homes and take refuge in the neighbouring countries. These waves of mass migration into neighbouring countries have continued until today, the recent one started when Taliban took power in Afghanistan. Even though, the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan by the Allied forces encouraged many Hazaras in Iran and Pakistan to return to their homes, the regular nomadic attacks on Hazaras and the oppressive treatment by the current government is once again driving Hazaras to flee the country.

This time however, the neighbouring countries are no more welcoming to Hazaras. Only in the last few years about 700 hundred Hazaras have been killed and over a 1000 permanently incapacitated in the Quetta city of Pakistan. These killings are carried out by RPG firings on residential areas and suicide attacks and machine gun firings at civilians during normal daily activities and communal festivities. Target killing of Hazaras has become a daily norm in Pakistan; which if not prevented early on, will become a wide scale genocide.

These killings are carried out following regular religious decrees that identify Shi’ite Hazaras as infidels who must be killed. An open letter, which was published in ‘Daily Jung,’ one of the leading national newspapers of Pakistan, called for killing Hazaras on the spot wherever they were found in order to clean the pure land of Pakistan from these infidels. Such open letters contain the signatures of prominent religious scholars, which make them very effective in manipulating the public opinion.

The government of Pakistan is complicit in supporting the terrorist organizations that carry these systematic attacks.

The offshoots and proxies of Al-Qaida and Taliban take pride in having devastated the Hazara communities and crushed their social life in Afghanistan; and they now intend to do the same in Pakistan. These are the aims they explicitly state in their open letters and their religious teachings.

We have played a significant role in the history and culture of Afghanistan & Pakistan; the destroyed statues of Buddha in Afghanistan were our historical pride; dozens of social, academic, artistic and sports figures and top army officers and commanders in Pakistan and Afghanistan are marks of the resilient and hardworking spirit of our people. Our people are eager to contribute to the development of a just and peaceful society as a home for everyone.

We have suffered from tyrannic oppression for over two centuries, and yet there is another holocaust we have to go through in Pakistan. We, the Australian Hazaras, strongly sympathise with the oppressed and tormented Hazaras who are suffering at the hands of Al-Qaida and its proxies such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Pakistan.

The crime of genocide is a justiciable offence under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. We believe that the international community, the United Nations and particularly the Australian Government have an obligation to prevent the genocide of Hazaras in Pakistan following the ratification of the Convention for The Prevention & Punishment of The Crime of Genocide. Pursuant to article 8 of the Convention which states “any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article 3”, contracting parties such as Australia is obliged to call upon the UN to take action now before it is too late.

We therefore demand the Australian Government to call upon the competent organs of the UN to consider and take the appropriate actions for the prevention of the genocide of Hazaras in Pakistan. The more than two thousand Hazaras who have been recognised as genuine refugees in the past three years by our Government have their immediate families in Pakistan who are living through the current turmoil; we believe that the obligation of the Australian Government towards the Hazaras who are either Australian citizens or permanent residents, extends to the protection of their immediate families as well.

We, the participants of today’s protest denounce crimes against humanity and defend the right to life of Hazaras in Pakistan, adapt the following resolutions:

1. We condemn the current systematic genocide of Hazaras in Pakistan.

2. We question the inexcusable silence of authorities in Pakistan, and the international community;

3. Appeal to the international community to raise their concerns with the Pakistani government about the genocide of Hazaras. Those countries that are contractual parties to ‘the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide’ (Convenion) have an obligation pursuant to article 8 of the stated convention. Therefore, we ask the International community to call upon the competent organs of the UN to take and consider appropriate actions for the prevention and suppression of the Genocide of Hazaras in Pakistan.

4. We ask the international community to call for a fair investigation into the systematic genocide of Hazaras at the hand of those who publicly confess to their crimes. The international institutions, particularly the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW, and the like, lest can take notice of Hazara genocide in Pakistan and take practical steps in preventing their genocide as per the resolution of the Convention and the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court.

5. We express our concerns that the genocide of Hazaras will continue to force them to flee and take refuge in other countries, which will eventually result in their extinction as an ethnic group, which incurs the loss of a culture, a language and a precious segment of the life experiences of human beings.

6. We demand our Foreign Minister honourable Senator Bob Carr to personally communicate to his counterpart in Pakistan and raise his serious concerns about the genocide of Hazaras taking place right now. In addition the honourable minister is requested to summon the ambassador of Pakistan and question him about the genocide in making of Hazaras and through bilateral means demand to put an end to this horrific genocide in making. Should these avenues avail no realistic outcome, consider the imposition of an autonomous sanction against the government of Pakistan.

7. We ask the respected MPs to take up the issue of Hazara genocide and their persecution in a session of our parliament in an attempt to end this horrific atrocity.

8. We therefore specifically ask our MPs to seek an adjournment debate and liaise to include the Hazara Genocide in the Department of foreign Affairs annual reports.

9. We despise the political intentions of the terrorists and religious fundamentalists who are trying to radicalize Pakistan by imposing a Taliban-like regime in that country.

10. We ask International Criminal Court (ICC) in Den Haag, Holland to prosecute the murderers of innocent Hazara civilians (be it a group, party or a country). This horrendous killing is a crime against humanity and has become a routine activity for terrorists organisations/groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Sipa-e-Sahaba Pakistan(SSP), Taliban, Al-Qaeda and the like, in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

11. We ask the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take Suo Moto notice of genocide of Hazaras and request a full investigation in noting that provincial law enforcement, ATF, and Frontier Corps has thus far failed to reveal any evidence or suspects in the cases before the Pakistani courts.

12. We reiterate that the obligation to prevent genocide dovetails with the responsibility to protect (R2P), recognised in 2005 by the United Nations General Assembly and endorsed the following year by the Security Council and Hazaras are owed such an obligation and responsibility.

13. We express our serious concerns that if the current level of ethnic cleansing of Hazaras is not countered, it will grow into wide scale genocide.

Finally the failure to prevent this crime against humanity will facilitate the genocide of Hazaras in Pakistan; and will also ensure that Afghanistan and Pakistan remain in a state of turmoil and ongoing bloodshed.

Worldwide Protest 2012: The Hague, Holland

Admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:09:18 +0000

Why Hazaras are being targeted, due to their Religion or Race?

Admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:37:46 +0000

Omid Bidar

The motive for Hazara genocide in Quetta (Provincial capital of Balochistan) is a serious issue with its high trends in the social networks these days. Everyone has a different thought on this issue.

Hazaras are being slaughtered in Quetta Pakistan since last decade and more than 700 Hazara Pakistani civilians living in Quetta have been murdered in target killings and hundreds are wounded so far. The attacks are being launched by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) which is an anti Shiite Pakistani religious extremist banned group that has claimed responsibility for plenty of deadly attacks on Hazara minority living in Quetta.

Hazaras living in Quetta are mostly Shiite Muslims; there are also a considerable number of Sunni and Ismaiely Hazaras as well. They can easily be recognized because of their similar facial structure to the Mongols, thus they are the primary victims of the attacks.

A brief introduction to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) terrorist activities:
July 2011: LeJ claimed responsibility for shooting passengers waiting at a bus terminal in Quetta, killing eleven and wounding three others. All of the victims were Hazaras. The attack was claimed as revenge for the death of a Sunni Mullah.

July 2011: LeJ claimed responsibility for an attack on police in Quetta in which two police officers and a civilian were killed. Both police officers were Hazaras.
June 2011: Suspected LeJ militants shot dead the deputy director general of the Pakistani Sports Board in Quetta. The victim was a Hazara.

May 2011: Suspected LeJ militants shot dead seven Hazara civilians and wounded six others in Quetta.
May 2011: Suspected LeJ militants killed eight Hazaras and wounded 15 others in a hot arms and grenade attack in Quetta;
August 2010: Four LeJ operatives were arrested for involvement in May 2010 attacks on Ahmadi Mosque.
June 2010: LeJ operatives were linked in media reports to suicide attacks on Ahmadi places of worship in Lahore.

April 2010: LeJ operatives conducted a double suicide attack targeting refugees in Kohat District, KP, killing an estimated 44 people and injuring at least 64 others.

March 2010: LeJ fraction Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Alami was linked to the kidnapping of British journalist Asad Qureshi and former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Colonel Armir Sultan. The kidnappers reportedly killed a third hostage, former Pakistan Air Force officer and former ISI member Khalid Khwaja.

March 2010: at least 57 people were killed and at least 90 others were injured when twin suicide bombs detonated in Lahore’s RA Bazaar. LeJ claimed responsibility.
January 2010: LeJ claimed responsibility for ambushing Hazara policemen in Quetta.

November 2009: LeJ claimed responsibility for a bomb blast targeting the Deputy Inspector General of Police Operations and warned that additional attacks would be conducted against the police.
March 2009: LeJ was suspected of involvement in the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, but charges against LeJ co-founder Malik Ishaque were dropped because the prosecutors could not prove the claim of the case.

September 2008: three LeJ-trained operatives were killed in a police raid. The police also found bomb-making material and the body of a Pakistani businessman who had been kidnapped and killed by the operatives.
September 2008: former LeJ leader Qari Zafar is suspected of involvement in the suicide bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

July 2008: senior LeJ member Shafiqur Rehman was arrested in Quetta. He confessed to seven assassinations in Quetta and is suspected of involvement in over 100 cases of sectarian terrorism.

February 2008: LeJ member Fida Hussain, who is believed to have been involved in the suicide bombing of a Pakistan Air Force bus in October 2007, was arrested in Lahore; and January 2008: LeJ was suspected of involvement in a bombing near a mosque in Peshawar in which 14 people were killed.

These activities indicate that LeJ has not only been terrorizing Shiite Muslims or Hazaras but it has also a considerable role in targeting Pakistani civilians of other faiths as well. However, it has been proved that victims are most likely to be Hazaras in past few years.

On the other hand the Shiite Genocide has turned in to an ethnic minority cleansing. The incidents occurred on Hazara community members on the passengers’ bus in Mastung; where the extremists stopped the bus and categorized Hazaras community members, took them off the bus, lined them up and shot them. The incidents in Spinni road, the rocket fire in Hazara graveyard in Brewery and other such incidents indicates that specific community genocide is taking place in Quetta city.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has published an open letter addressed the Hazara Community in Quetta, Pakistan.
Pakistan is packed up with dozens of religious outfits which constantly terrorize the Shiite Muslims in Pakistan and aims to turn Pakistan in to a complete Sunni state, primarily through violent means. Spiah-e-Shaba (SSP) is also known to be one of the most anti Shiite Muslims’ terrorist organisations in Pakistan.

SSP is one of the five terrorist organisations which were proscribed by President Parvez Mushraf in January 2002, due to having terrorist activities within the country. Despite being a banned organisation SSP has been active with only just a change of name. SSP is renamed to Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan.

In 2003 SSP published a Religious Decree (Fatwa) declaring Shiite Muslims as “Infidels” and urging followers for taking extreme steps.

This evidence was found in Madrassa Dar-ul-Uloom Jamia Imdadia, Mari Abad Quetta, Pakistan which was published by SSP.

These terrorist organisations hold Iran as the sponsor of Shiite extremist outfits in Pakistan. A score of Hazara community members also migrated to Iran during the prosecution of Hazara minority in Afghanistan. The anti Shiite organisations still believe that Hazaras belong to Iran. Iranian government discriminate against Sunni Pakistani refugees in Iran, accordingly these extremist outfits target the Hazara citizens in Pakistan.
Hazara community in Quetta are paying for the discriminations against the Sunni Pakistani refugees in Iran. In an interview of BBC Persian reporter with one of the leaders of SSP Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi last year, the leader said, “Sunni Muslims are not given their rights in Iran; even they can’t work as an ordinary person.

We want the same in Pakistan; we will give those rights to Shiites in Pakistan which are given to Sunni Pakistanis in Iran.” He also added that this country (Pakistan) is Mostly consist of Sunni Muslims, therefore we want the President, the Prime Minister, the Army Chief and the President of Supreme Court all to be Sunni Muslims.

To the end it refers that extremist terrorist organisations have been targeting only Hazara Minority in Quetta city from past few years, rather than it would have any religious color inside. The incidents occurred on Hazara community since past some years show that it is a war and genocide only against the Hazaras not the other Shiite Muslims.