Sectarian Warfare & Hazara Genocide Continues in Pakistan
The genocide against the Hazara inside Pakistan continues, merely an extension of the sectarian warfare that’s gone on inside Pakistan and Afghanistan for decades (yes, even before 9/11, see “The Kite Runner”.) This same sectarian warfare was successfully exported to Iraq by Al Qaeda and it managed to keep that war going much longer than it needed to.
In a back country newspaper in Pakistan long ago I read that Osama Bin Laden essentially got his mujahadeen start by murdering Hazara and other tribes in the hinterlands of Pakistan and the Kashmirs for Zia al Haq, but I do not know if that’s true since I’ve never encountered that story at a reputable source.
This sectarian violence over blood, soil, and religion has gone on in the region for ages, and it’s likely to continue after we leave Afghanistan no matter how good or bad that goes. Nearby in Parachinar it’s Pashtun vs. Hazara, in the Southern cities it’s Sindh vs. Ahmadiya and Christian, and in the Kashmirs it’s Islam vs. Hinduism. It’s sad, it’s pathetic, it’s heart rending, but it will continue during this century until more education and reform comes to the extremist and fundamentalist hinterlands of the subcontinent.
Six people were killed and 15 others wounded in firing and rocket attacks in Hazara Town, Brewery Road area, here on Friday. The defunct religious group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, claimed responsibility for the attack. Preliminary investigations by the police have confirmed this was a sectarian attack.
Police officials said dozens of people belonging to the Hazara community were busy taking their morning walks at around 6:30 am at a ground adjacent to the Hazara Town graveyard when unknown armed men riding on two pick-ups arrived and fired three rockets and lethal automatic weapons.
Six people died on the spot, while more than 15 others sustained injuries. “In minutes, the playground turned into a slaughter house,” an eyewitness told The News. Some news agencies reported that at least eight persons were killed in the incident.