KABUL, Afghanistan – Amena says her family came to the Afghan capital from Bamiyan province in search of better opportunity and safety six years ago. They settled in Dasht-e-Barchi – a predominantly Hazara Shia Muslim neighbourhood in western Kabul.
Last month, 85 people, most of them female students between the ages of 11 and 17, were killed in bombings outside the Sayed-ul-Shuhada high school in Barchi. Among them was Amena’s teenage niece.
“We came here for work, but all we found was death,” Amena, 50, said, adding that her family is now contemplating a return to their home district Waras, where a number of the schoolgirls killed were from.
The relative security of the neighbourhood – home to approximately one million people – has attracted Hazaras such as Amena from across the war-torn country and also those returning from refugee life in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran.
Barchi emerged as a safe haven for the Hazara population as the South Asian nation descended into civil war in the 1990s and Kabul became a battleground for armed groups fighting for control of the country.
But in recent years the neighbourhood has become a target of brutal attacks, many of them claimed by ISIL (ISIS), triggering calls of a Hazara genocide that people say the Kabul administration has failed to address.
In recent years, the government has made some efforts to secure Barchi by authorising extra security for the neighourhood during the annual Ashura commemorations. The commemorations of the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson have come under attack at least three times since 2011. President Ashraf Ghani has also made a point to condemn each attack in the area.
To Barchi residents, though, those efforts have not been enough. They say in Barchi, no place is safe. Armed groups have attacked educational testing centres, a wrestling gym, an ID card distribution centre, a mosque, a maternity ward, and last month, the girls’ school.
On Saturday, at least seven people were killed in two separate blasts in the area. (Aljazeera)