Hazara community’s hunger strike in Quetta continues for second day

Members of the minority Hazara community are protesting in Quetta against the targeted killing of members of the community by terrorist outfits. Angry members of the community launched the hunger strike after the killing of two Hazara men on Saturday.

The protest which took the shape of a hunger strike was being staged outside Quetta Press Club. Led by social activist Jalila Haider, the protest entered its second day on Sunday.

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

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

In another part of the city, Balochistan Shia Conference held a protest rally at Shuhada Chowk, Alamdar Road. The neighbourhood mostly houses members of the Hazara community.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker Nasir Shah, while addressing the gathering, said, “The people of Balochistan do not want roti (bread), kapra (clothes) and makaan (house) if they do not have the right to life.” The gathering was also attended by members of Hazara Democratic Party, Balochistan National Party, Jamhuri Watan Party and other political outfits.

He added, “When the state starts showing signs of weakness, social peace is the first to suffer. He said the “wrong policies” of the state had exposed the people of the province to the dangers they faced today.

According to another speaker, namely Zair Agha, all neighbourhoods that are dominated by Hazaras have transformed into orphanages. “It seems that our blood has become cheaper than water,” he added.

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 recent killing of two Hazara men in Quetta, which provided the impetus for the protest, was the fourth targeted attack on the community this month in the provincial capital.

Earlier, two members of the community were killed while one was injured in an attack in the Western Bypass area of the city last Sunday. On April 18, a Hazara shopkeeper was killed when unknown assailants opened fire on him while another was killed in the beginning of the same month.

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.