Seemingly there is no end to suffering of Hazara people. Every now and then, reports go on wire highlighting the murder and assassination of Hazaras somewhere on the surface of this planet.
Hundreds of them have lost lives on the way to Australia, drowned in the merciless Indian Ocean. Hundreds were hurled from multiple storey buildings merely for asking their salaries, burned alive in brick-making oven, stuffed within the tire and rolled down from mountain in Iran.
Recently, they are persecuted on account of accomplice with President Assad’s regime while they have nothing to do with the government. They are in Syria only and only to escape the brunt of destiny in their homeland.
Tens of thousands of them have been persecuted, mutilated and murdered only and only due to their complexion and religion in Afghanistan.
The only safe place they could think of, after their mass massacre in the 19th century in Afghanistan, was British India. After partition of India and Pakistan, Quetta and Karachi continued to remain as the main target of Hazara refugees.
With growing number of refugees to Pakistan and their outstanding improvement in educational field has somehow caused the envy of other communities. With comparatively better environment in Afghanistan after the US-led military involvement, militants and terrorists increasingly have turned to avenge the community through targeting them in Quetta.
However, it may look strange but just putting a glimpse on graph of Hazara casualties in target killings and suicide bombings, the above assessment proves dependable. There have been three horrible suicide bombings in 2013 that have caused cladding the entire community in black.
Surprisingly, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) proudly accepts the responsibility while none of its leaders were captured on the charges.
Pakistan is believed to have one of the most sophisticated intelligence services in the region. Security experts believe that the establishment can bring down any armed opposition any time it decides. But how it fails to bring LeJ leaders to justice remains a question.
The only reason can be an unwillingness to protect a small open-minded community whose votes do not have much effect on the result of elections. With increasing tide of radicalizations, politicians, also, have not much interest to anger Islamists who support sectarian tensions.
Therefore, the international community should not shut their eyes on the ground realities because they may not need the votes as Pakistani politicians do in elections. The international community should mount pressure on Islamabad to protect the community that, as per confession of Pakistani officials, is of huge cultural and democratic wealth for Pakistan.