THE Shia Hazara community in Quetta has been facing horror and horrendous bloodbaths for the last two decades. I never wrote against anyone or ever felt that my words were important enough to express any opinion on any topic. But the recent slaughter of 11 Hazara coal miners in Mach could not stop me from writing.

These bloody, blindfolded bodies of Hazara people may leave any person in a state of shock, horror and agony, leave alone any person from the Hazara community.

We raise our voice for the rights of Kashmiris in India-occupied Kashmir, feel the pain for the people killed in the 2015 Paris attacks, we condemn Myanmar’s Rohingya genocide and many other atrocities against Muslims.

But I fail to understand why our people cannot see what has been happening to their own people in their country. How can they close their eyes to the brutal murders of Hazara by the unknown terrorists?

These terrorists use bomb blasts, target killings, cold-blooded slaughters against the Hazara community that has lost in these attacks government officials, sportsmen, businessmen, literary personalities and thousands of men, women and children who fall in the category of ‘common man’, but they were not ‘common’ for their families at all. They were all very, very ‘special’ to their loved ones.

I have grown up witnessing and going through all these life-shattering traumas that have devastated the lives of this unfortunate community socially, economically and academically. This has left every single Hazara, specifically the youth, hoping to just be able to live out their lives without much in the name of an aim in life. For more than two decades, I have seen the people of the community suffer from a constant fear of losing their loved ones and not letting them leave for work outside their ‘specific area’.

Hazaras now live stranded in towns, struggling to get their basic rights; more importantly, a right to live. Youngsters are the most affected ones as they find it hard getting an education, for the public universities fall in the areas which are ‘red zones’ for them. This lack of security also results in losing their financial stability everyday as all their businesses have also been destroyed due to such an insecure environment.

While the community has lost 3,000 souls in terrorist attacks, inaction on the part of those at the helm of the affairs and the silence by fellow communities compound our woes. Whether we call this bloodletting, acts of terrorism or sectarian violence, the lack of action by the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Natca), influential figures and the so-called social welfare organisations clearly shows indifference towards the Hazara community.

Yet most of us have never stopped trying to get back to life and holding back to hope again and again despite this bloodshed which never seems to end. We are still waiting for the state and the law to bring these merciless murderers to justice under the law of the land.

Protecting every single citizen’s life and rights is the state’s core responsibility. We just want to live normal lives like all other people. I urge the people of Pakistan to raise their voice for us so that we may not lose hope … hope to be able to live our routine lives.

Jamila Jaffry

Quetta

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THERE have been multiple killings of Shia Hazaras for the last so many years. No adequate response has ever been given to the perpetrators of these heinous crimes so far. When an incident occurs, it is discussed and debated, and then forgotten until history repeats itself.

We all know that there are terrorist groups concentrated around Quetta. They have been committing various kinds of crimes so much so that even the travel of pilgrims to Iran had to be discontinued. Now, the so-called Islamic State, ousted from Iraq and Syria, is adding to this terror force.

The only solution to this terrorist activity is to carry out a targeted operation to clean up the areas where the terrorists reside. In Iraq and Syria, this purge was carried out with the help of Iran and the United States. Pakistani security forces may have the ability to do it alone.

There is a need to mobilise the will and pursue this mission with passion. There is no reason peace cannot be restored. Let the Hazaras breathe free in their homeland.

Dr Mahnaz Fatima

Karachi

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2021