September 1-7, 2006 | Vol. XVIII, No.

28

Troubled Hazaras of Balochistan

Malik Siraj Akbar The Hazara community provides a great example of mobilisation, mutual cooperation, self-reliance and struggle against heavy odds

n July 6, 1985, the military government of General Zia-ul Haq forcefully tried to stop a Shia procession in Quetta city. The incident led to the killing of 30 persons, including some policemen. In 2001, eight Hazara-Shias were killed when their Suzuki was ambushed on Poodgali Chowk. Another 12 Hazaras, all police cadets, were gunned down on June 8, 2003 while on their way to a training centre near Sariab. In 2003, in one of the worst sectarian assaults in the history of Pakistan, some 58 people, most of them Hazara Shias, were killed while around 200 were injured when a suicide bomber attacked Imambargah-e-Kalan in Quetta. Another 38 persons, mostly Hazara Shias, were killed in a sectarian assault on March 2, 2004. The incident left 200 people injured. Who are the Hazaras and where have they come from? In his seminal book War and Migration, Alessandro Monsutti, classifies the Hazara migration to Balochistan in the following phases: From 1878-1891: Following the second Anglo-Afghan war, the first Hazaras came to Quetta to seek employment in British-run companies under the Raj. They are thought to have worked on the building of roads and the Bolan Pass railway as well as enlisting in the British army of India. At that time, there could have been no more than a few hundred Hazaras in Balochistan. From 1891-1901: The subjugation of Hazarajat by Abdur Rahman, between 1891 and 1893, triggered a mass exodus of Hazaras to Turkestan, Khorasan and Balochistan. From 1901 to 1933: The situation in Afghanistan returned to normal under Habibullah (1901-1919), the son of Abdul Rahman. He offered amnesty to the Hazaras but this proved to be of little help in improving the lot of the Hazara community in Afghanistan. In 1904, the

106th Pioneers, a separate regiment for the Hazaras formed by the British, offered greater careers prospects, social recognition and economic success. From 1933-1971: The regiment of Hazara Pioneers was disbanded in 1933. Deprived of this social and professional outlet, Hazaras went to settle in Quetta between the 1930s and 1960s, although the process of migration never completely dried up. From 1971-1978: Following the 1971 drought, Hazaras then settled in Quetta or went to Iran in search of work. Between 1973 and 1978, tensions over the Pushtunistan issue between the Daud government and Pakistan were an additional factor in the Hazara migration. After 1978: Following the Communist coup in April 1978 and the Soviet intervention in December 1979, the migratory movement assumed hitherto unprecedented dimensions. The Hazara community in Quetta presents an impressive and encouraging view of community mobilisation. As it stops showering, residents of Quettas Alamdar Road, young and old, take to the streets with brooms and shovels to clear the rainwater. Most are members of the Hazara community who, instead of waiting for the authorities to take care of things, like to do it themselves. The Hazaras feel that small but important chores like clearing water on the roads and keeping the locality clean are the responsibility of the community itself Indeed, every morning, one can see a collective effort by the community to clean the streets of the neighbourhood before people take to the Quetta Cantonment area for the routine morning walk. Walking around the neighbourhood, one cannot help but notice the crowded but clean residential areas of Alamdar Road and its neighbouring Togi Road. It is impossible in fact to overlook the positive social indicators in this part of Balochistan. On Alamdar Road itself are located a number of language and technical centres, mostly established by the community to educate and train Hazara kids. The Hazara community is the most educated community in Balochistan. Some 50 percent of position holders in the matriculation and FA/BA exams are from among us [Hazaras], states a Hazara professor at the University of Balochistan. No matter how poor the head of a family is, educating the children remains the top priority of parents among the Hazaras, says Mirza Hussain, a social worker. Indeed, the reason the community has taken off the way it has, has much to do with its emphasis on human resource development. Hence the visible presence of Hazaras in the civil services, police, the IT market, small businesses and other professional sectors in Balochistan. Still, a lack of jobs to match qualifications remains one of the main concerns of the community. Also, Hazaras do not have their own land to cultivate, and are hence deprived

of agricultural benefits. Experts say the Hazaras are the most rapidly but silently emerging community in Balochistan. Ninety percent of them follow Shia Islam and speak Hazargi, a dialect of the Persian language. Hazaras have, by and large, come to be seen as an extremely hardworking people. Their history, too, is replete with incidents of hardship and ethnic discrimination, especially at the hands of Pashtun rulers in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the Hazaras lived in the semi-autonomous province of Hazarajat from where they fled in the late 19th century due to the excesses of then Afghan king, Abdur Rahman (the community still refers to him as Abdur Rahman-e-Khoonaasham (Abdur Rahman the spiller of blood). Other factors that led to their sustained migration to Pakistan in recent years include famine in the seventies, the Communist coup in 1978, Soviet intervention in 1979 and the rise of the Taliban. In Pakistan, the Hazaras have faced a tough time at the hands of the Baloch and Pashtun communities, especially in Quetta, where the locals are obviously not happy that with the fact that the Hazaras dominate various walks of life. The Hazaras themselves strongly feel they have a much tougher time than others in getting things done. Take, for example, the civil services, which many Hazaras opt for and where they face tough, and what they say is unfair, competition. We want meritocracy to be promoted and the quota system to be abolished, says one Hazara student. We work very hard to get into professional colleges and the civil services while other districts in Balochistan get in through quotas. A student from Quetta, irrespective of his ethnic affiliations, has to obtain some 700 to 800 marks to qualify for a medical seat while there are students with 400 marks who get seats because of the quota system, complains Fatima Zehra who thinks reservation should be completely abolished. By doing away with quotas, we will restore the sanctity of merit and also encourage and facilitate deserving and bright students, she adds. Because of lack of job opportunities, many Hazaras have also been forced to illegally travel to Iran and the European countries to seek livelihood. So far, hundreds of young men and women have gone missing while travelling to Europe, says Rehaim Changezi, a professor at the department of social work at the University of Balochistan. In fact, the largest source of income for the Hazaras is now smuggling via Iran, which itself is not the most ideal of destinations. Despite the fact that we share the same religion, Shia Islam, and speak the same language, Persian, Hazaras are widely discriminated against by the Iranians, argues Ishaque Ali, Director of the Balochistan Museum. Hazara transporters also say local Baloch and Pashtun transporters dont show much interest in building partnerships with them.

Fearing that the Hazaras are steadily leading to a demographic imbalance in the province, both Baloch and Pashtun nationalists maintain that state agencies are involved in encouraging this community to undermine the local population. Ibrahim Hazara, secretary general of Hazara Democratic Party (HDP), vehemently dispels this impression. How can the Hazaras cause demographic imbalance when their total population is hardly 200,000? Compare this with 6 million Baloch and Pashtun! If there is anyone who has suffered because of agencies conspiracies, it is the Hazaras themselves. The intelligence agencies have had an overt role in backing extremists to help eliminate the Shia-Hazaras, alleges Ibrahim Hazara. In recent years, the Hazara community in Balochistan has also become a major victim of sectarian violence. Although we had been living peacefully with the Sunnis for ages, a wave of sectarian violence was kicked off during the regime of Zia-ul-Haq, explains a resident. Politically, however, Hazaras take the same stand as the Baloch nationalists, including the demand for maximum provincial autonomy. A leader of the Hazara Democratic Party told TFT the community is opposed to the construction of cantonments in Balochistan. On the question of mega projects, Ibrahim Hazara says development should directly involve the people of Balochistan and benefit them. Ibrahim Hazara also says the community is proactively engaged in changing its image. Many people accuse us of being religiously extremists even though a majority of us are secular, he says. But while positive social indicators persist, Ishaque Ali of the Balochistan Museum feels that the Hazara community is still very far from being fully integrated and accepted.