On Sunday, seven Hazara individuals were shot dead by unidentified gunmen riding on motorcycle in Hazar Ganji, Quetta in the front of tens of eyewitnesses, watching them rolling in gush of blood. The shooters could manage to escape from the scene after emptying their magazines on poor Hazara community members who were small vegetable merchants.
Two other Shias were killed at the same area just moments later. The incident angered the community and fuelled widespread protest which led to murder of two other people and, according to local sources, nine others injured in clashes with security forces.
What is completely unacceptable is the failure of security forces to persecute and detect the culprits! Within just few weeks, tens of Hazara people were shot dead and yet there is no news of detection and apprehension of culprits. Is not it weird that Pakistan with such well-established secret service fails to identify masked bike riders shooting people in daylight in the public?
If the incidents were not frequent, it could be justified somehow, but since Friday, four separate target killings have taken place against the community, while both central and provincial governments have not made a successful move to arrest the masterminds behind.
Additionally, it is not clear who the assassins are. Lashgar-e-Jhangavi has always claimed the responsibility for the attacks. It is a banned organization, responsible for sectarian violence in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan, as it claimed the responsibility of attack on Imam Hussein mourners in Ashura in Kabul which left many people dead earlier this year.
It is really important that law enforcing agencies in Pakistan should be aware of its activities, headquarters and the hideouts of its leaders. It is really disappointing for both federal and provincial governments that they have failed to protect one of the most marginalized community in the country.
It should be noticed, dishearted with the situation in Quetta, Hazara community has lost trust on security forces. People believe that some of the culprits in law enforcing agencies are involved in target killings. Perhaps, they are right. Hazaras, in the city they have been living in for decades, have been confined.
They are only travelling between Hazara Town and Alamdar Road – two locations where they live. However, the road connecting the two locations is kilometers long but the length where Hazaras have been generally targeted is not more than few kilometers. Still security forces cannot provide protection for people in that particular area! What can justify such inability except what the community believes?