Hazara killings

Last Saturday, two shopkeepers in Quetta were killed in a drive-by shooting for no reason other than their ethnicity. This was the fourth targeted attack on the Hazara community in the provincial capital in April. The campaign of violence against Hazara Shias has been going on for years now, with the National Commission of Human Rights releasing a report this year which said 509 Hazaras have been killed in militant and targeted attacks in the last five years. Now the Hazara community has taken to the streets and is holding a sit-in to protest what they call the genocide of their community. Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has even gone to Quetta to meet the protesters and ask them to end the sit-in. What he should be doing, as the top law-enforcement official in the country, is ensuring the safety of this beleaguered community. Hazaras have been targeted for well over a decade by militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who have their roots in Punjab but have been carrying out attacks on minorities in Balochistan. For all the progress we have made in the war against militancy, much of the action has been centred on the TTP and its allies while militant groups which have been around much longer and have been targeting minority communities since the 1980s are largely left alone.

Much of the recent spate of Hazara killings has been claimed by the Khorasan branch of the Islamic State – a militant group whose members mostly include those who used to be part of the TTP, LeJ and other militant outfits. If there is one glue that binds all militant groups, it is hatred for religious and sectarian minorities. Last December, 15 Christians were killed in an attack on the Methodist Church in Quetta and the Hindu community has been fleeing the province for years. Both the provincial and federal government have largely been silent about the atrocities committed against minority communities, particularly the Hazara Shias. The political class knows that if it speaks up for an embattled minority group it will end up being in the crosshairs next. The Supreme Court has theorised that there is a lack of legislative will to do anything about killings against minority groups like the Hazaras. But it is not more laws that we need. What is missing is the will to take the fight to every militant group and to finally stick our necks out for a community that has been discriminated against for decades.