QUETTA, Oct 27: Local leaders of the Hazara tribe have taken a serious notice of a public statement of former foreign minister Gohar Ayub that the ratio of Hazara population in Afghanistan is two per cent.

“Hazaras are 35 per cent of Afghanistan population”, claimed Sardar Asif Khan, the chief of the Hazaras, living in Quetta and other areas of the province.

He quoted an agreement, signed by various leaders of Pakistan and Iran based-jihadi groups, and said that the agreement had been signed at a meeting held under the auspices of United Nations and that it had provided 35 per cent representation to the Hazaras in Majlis-i-Shoora.

He blamed the Afghan rulers for converting the Hazara majority into a minority in many provinces by splitting this population into many districts and provinces.

He said Deezngi, which had a population of 1.2 million, had been merged into the Uzargan province, and many other Hazara areas had been included into the Ghazni province.

Khan claimed that Pushtoons were living in only two provinces — Paktia and Gardaz — of the 28 provinces of Afghanistan, and that the central Afghanistan belonged to the Hazaras.

He asked Mr Ayub to go through historical facts. He suggested that the UN conduct an impartial census in its supervision in Afghanistan.

He supported the idea of a broad-based government in Afghanistan, and demanded that all nationalities be given representation in such a government for restoring complete peace.