Govt remains indifferent to Hazara hunger strike

• CM Bizenjo says recent killings ‘a conspiracy to spread chaos’ in province

• Hazaras’ hunger strike against unabated killings of community members continue

• Minister holds protest outside assembly over Hazara killings

QUETTA: In the wake of city-wide protests against the recent targeted attacks, especially on Hazara community, the chief minister of Balochistan, Abdul Qudus Bizenjo, and Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti visited a Majlis-e-Wahdatul Musleemeen (MWM) protest camp outside Balochistan Assembly on Monday whereas the hunger strike camp led by activist Jalila Haider, which has entered the third day, still goes unnoticed.

During the visit, Bizenjo and Bugti termed the targeted killings “a conspiracy to spread chaos” in the province. Law Minister Agha Raza also held a protest demonstration outside the assembly against Hazara killings. However, the negotiations between the government and the MWM reportedly remained unsuccessful by mid night.

In the month of April, there have been four attacks on Hazara community in which at least six people were killed and several injured which has led to a protest outside the press club which later morphed into a hunger strike.

The protesting Hazaras complained of the ineffectiveness of the law enforcement and security agencies in preventing the unabated killings of Hazaras in the provincial capital. They also demand that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa should visit the city and meet the widows of the deceased men.

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Talking to reporters on Sunday, Jalila Haider said that the hunger strike would not end until and unless the state provided security to the persecuted Hazara community.

In the past few years, more than 2,000 Hazaras have been killed while another 3,000 have been injured in different incidents of targeted violence, the protester claim.

The Shia Hazara community had been largely targeted by sectarian outfits in Balochistan due to their easily identifiable facial features. According to National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR) report released last month revealed that around 509 Hazaras were killed in terrorist hits in Quetta in the last five years.

The report titled ‘Understanding the Agonies of Ethnic Hazaraz’ is based on the data shared by the Balochistan home department and lists the incidents of attacks on the Hazara community from January 2012 to Dec 2017.

In 2013 alone, at least 180 Hazaras were killed in bomb blasts-96 died in a bomb explosion at a snooker club frequently visited by Hazaras while 84 others were killed when a bomb went off in a vegetable market mostly used by Hazaras.