Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

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A Response to the Article “Who kills Hazaras in Pakistan and Why?”

The whole analysis that support the basic hypothesis of the article seems to be greatly influenced by the dominance of "Conspiracy Theory"

I am a regular reader of Daily Outlook. I am greatly interested in the articles and editorials published on your website. I read an article titled, "Who kills Hazaras in Pakistan and Why?" written by Mohammad Younas and posted on your website on April 05, 2012. Before I comment on the article, let me inform you that I, myself, am a Hazara, belonging to Quetta, Pakistan.

Definitely, the killing of innocent Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan must be fully condemned and all necessary measures must be taken to curb the issue. However, this does not imply that I am going to favor whatever is mentioned by Mohammad Younas in his article. I would try to clarify some of "mis-thoughts" (the way I believe them) that have dominated the article.

Before I raise some of the issues from within the article, I must mention that the impact of the article is so that a reader starts thinking that Pakistani state is in a clash with Hazara community, which should never be taken as true. In fact, most of Pakistani Hazaras are, to a possible extent, satisfied of their lives in Pakistan and they do not hesitate to be called Pakistanis.

Yes, they have grievances from the government and they have every right to protest for their rightful demands; even they may be against the government policies but they are not anti-state. I, being a Pakistani Hazara, request from the editorial board of Daily Outlook that by keeping the "freedom of expression" intact it must not let the Daily turn into a platform for anti-Pakistan sentiments.

The whole article is basically based on the careless assumption that Hazara community has started believing that Pakistani state's secret agencies are directly involved in the killings of Hazaras in Quetta Pakistan. The writer must be careful enough not to let his own emotions dominate his analysis.

What the writer says here on the part of the community (without verifiable research work and statistical data) may be just his own perception or the perception of only some people in the community and some people does not mean the whole Hazara community. The whole analysis that follows to support the basic hypothesis (which I mentioned is careless) seems to be greatly influenced by the dominance of "Conspiracy Theory".

The incidents and examples quoted in the article are no doubt true. There have been such merciless killings of Hazaras within and around the city. There have not been enough measures to capture the terrorists; moreover, the attitude of the Chief Minister of Balochistan Aslam Raisani and Hayatullah Durrani are condemnable and all the Hazaras must politically strive to change the things. However, every incident is not necessarily a machination and it can be altered with political awareness.

To answer the question, "Why the state secret agencies support religious terrorists in Pakistan especially in Balochistan?" the writer gives the following conclusion after quoting the political developments in 80's, "It seems impossible for the secret agencies in Pakistan to detach themselves from the religious militant groups, as they help them in accomplishing local and regional political purposes. The intelligence agencies know well how to use the religious militant groups in Indian Kashmir and Afghanistan for their political ends. That's why the military ruling class engage civilians into political and sectarian violence in order to prolong its rule over the country.

Once again, the present military higher ups are following the same route to promote religious extremists and underground religious militants to not only terrorize the politicians throughout the country but also planning to use them in Afghanistan especially after 2014 with full force."

This clearly shows that the writer does not seem to believe in political developments and changes. Whatever was true in 80's does not necessarily imply that they are true today. Today, Pakistan's stability does not lie within supporting the religious extremist groups within the country.

Yes, there are culprits within Pakistan who do so but it doest mean that the whole establishment to be favouring the idea as it is against the interests of Pakistan. Moreover, Pakistan's stand regarding Kashmir and Afghanistan must be studied separately and must not be generalized together so as to have proper understanding of the issues.

In my perception, Pakistan is not in the favour of instability in Afghanistan especially after 2014. Moreover, itself threatened highly by the religious terrorism, Pakistan would not support Taliban-led government in Afghanistan.

The reason is, "Pakistan's own stability". On the other hand, the issue of Kashmir is not an issue only because they are militarily supported by Pakistan. There can be a long discussion on the topic; however, it would suffice to say that if we say that Pakistan supports militancy in Kashmir, we must also mention what others are doing in Kashmir. Aren't they showing military might to subjugate Kashmir and how far the peaceful efforts to solve the issue of Kashmir have been successful for more than 64 years?

The writer concludes by saying that Hazaras are targeted in Quetta, Balochistan because they favoured international forces against Taliban in Afghanistan and Taliban after escaping Afghanistan took refuge in Pakistan and are now killing Hazaras. It may be one of the reasons but, in fact, the writer does not successfully trace the roots of the issue. Killing of Hazaras is not ethnic killing alone.

It would be better to term it as "Ethno-Sectarian killing" and has its roots with the Sectarian killings that have been occurring in Pakistan and Sectarian killings in Pakistan are not a very new phenomenon. They have their roots in 80's and they involve killings of non-Hazara Shias, which is happening in some other parts of Pakistan even nowadays.

To conclude my letter I would condemn the killings of Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan and demand from the government of Pakistan to address the issue appropriately; however, I also try not to lead the people towards "mis-thoughts".
Thank you,
Ahmad Ali,
Alamdar Road, Quetta, Pakistan

Who kills Hazaras in Pakistan and why?