Pakistani Hazara campaigner fights deportation from Britain

Published October 16, 2014
A young girl protests against Hazara killings in Toronto. – Photo by Murtaza Haider/File
A young girl protests against Hazara killings in Toronto. – Photo by Murtaza Haider/File

LONDON: Lawyers for a leading activist from Pakistan's embattled Shia Hazara community made a last-minute bid on Thursday to stop his deportation from Britain despite having received death threats from militants in his homeland.

Liaquat Ali Hazara, 36, told AFP in a phone interview from the detention centre where he is being held in England that his lawyers had applied to cancel the expulsion set for Tuesday.

“I fear they can disappear me from the airport upon my arrival,” Hazara said, speaking from Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre near Lincoln, central England.

Hazara's minority community has been attacked on many occasions by the al Qaeda-linked hardline militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and the Hazaras often travel accompanied by security squads to avoid killings.

Know more: Hazards of Identity

“A person like me, who has a raised political and human rights stature, I could be an easy target for them,” he said.

The campaigner came to Britain in 2005 to study accountancy and began his political activities in 2009, founding the Hazara United Movement (HUM) to draw attention to his people's plight in Pakistan.

The movement founded by Hazara helped organise debates on the plight of his people at the United Nations Human Rights Council and the British parliament, with testimonies from victims of the violence.

The activist applied for asylum in 2012 after receiving death threats but his application was rejected. He explained that his previous lawyer had failed to explain to British authorities the dangers he would face in Pakistan.

Around 1,000 Shias have been killed in the past two years in Pakistan, a heavy toll on the community that makes up roughly 20 per cent of the country's population of 180 million.

The bulk of the Shia killings have come in Balochistan, which is home to most of Pakistan's Hazaras.

Also read: HRCP reports exodus of minorities from Balochistan

Five people were killed and 25 others wounded earlier this month when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Hazara colony in Quetta.

Quetta, the Balochistan capital, “has become an inferno where the Hazaras in particular and people of other minorities in general, such as Hindus and Sikhs, fear for their lives, “Hazara said.

“The whole community is like a concentration camp.”

Opinion

Editorial

Killing fields
Updated 09 Jul, 2025

Killing fields

Israeli state seeks to ethnically cleanse the occupied territories of their Palestinian inhabitants, and forever obstruct the chances of a viable Palestinian state.
Crypto rush
09 Jul, 2025

Crypto rush

STEP by step, Pakistan is, at least on paper, moving closer to recognising, adopting and regulating cryptocurrencies...
Another plan
09 Jul, 2025

Another plan

FAILING to plan is planning to fail, as the old saying goes. This seems to have occurred in the case of Karachi, a...
Green tokenism
Updated 08 Jul, 2025

Green tokenism

Climate decisions must be based on facts, not politics — guided by independent science and open to public scrutiny.
Cotton decline
08 Jul, 2025

Cotton decline

PAKISTAN’S cotton economy is in a crisis. Production has fallen from a peak of 14m bales 10 years ago to 5.5m ...
Pet problems
08 Jul, 2025

Pet problems

PAKISTANIS’ obsession with exotic pets keeps ending in tragedy. Incidents like the recent lion attack in a Lahore...