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For the second time this year, the ethnic Hazara community in Quetta has been massacred in devastating bomb explosions carried out by an anti-Shia militant group, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. And on both occasions, the hapless Hazaras refused to bury their dead until their demands for protection and changes in the provincial government of Balochistan were accepted. Both in January and February, the Hazara Shias protested by keeping the bodies of their loved ones on the streets for four days at a stretch in Quetta's freezing temperatures and even during rain. Under Islamic principles, bodies are required to be buried as soon as possible, but such was the pain of the Hazaras that they defied it and kept the corpses unburied for days. More than 200 members of the Hazara community were killed and many others wounded in the two bombings. Finally, on February 20 in the second instance, the Hazaras buried 113 of their men, women and children, killed in a devastating bomb explosion in Quetta. Earlier, in mid-January, they agreed to bury their 83 dead when the Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani and his cabinet were sacked. The major Hazara demand that Quetta city should be handed over to the army wasn't accepted but on the insistence of the Hazara protestors, a targeted operation was started against the Sunni militants. The protests were called off following talks between a delegation sent by the federal government and the Hazara Shia elders. In January, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf personally rushed to Quetta to console the Hazara elders and persuade them to bury their dead. The Hazara Shia elders were requested to trust the government as it had already started targeted operations to kill or apprehend the militants belonging to Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, which had brazenly claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks in Quetta. The Hazaras have distinctive Mongol features and are therefore easily recognizable and targeted by their enemies. They have traditionally faced persecution at the hands of some Afghan kings, primarily Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, and other ethnic groups due to sectarian and ethnic reasons. They originally lived in central Afghanistan in places like Bamiyan, but many had to migrate to neighbouring Iran and undivided India to escape attacks. In due course, the Hazara community gained a foothold in Kabul and also in Quetta, where they served in the British army, worked in coalmines and took other tough jobs. Soldiering has been part of the Hazara life and a proportionally high number have served in both the Afghan and Pakistani armed forces. The Hazaras have also done well in Afghan politics and presently have a disproportionately high representation in Afghanistan's parliament and security forces. Lately, a growing number of members of the community have settled in Western countries, mainly in Australia, in search of security and a livelihood. It was a difficult decision for President Asif Ali Zardari to sack Chief Minister Raisani as he belonged to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the ruling party headed by him and his young son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, as the co-chairman and chairman, respectively. He was also forced to pack up the PPP-led provincial coalition government in the restive Balochistan province due to its inability to maintain law and order. Governor's Rule was imposed in the province for two months and Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi, who also belonged to the ruling PPP in the past, was tasked to restore order in the provincial capital, Quetta, and the rest of Balochistan with the help of the paramilitary Frontier Corps and, if need be, the military. This appeared to be a sensible option at the time as the protests in Quetta by the Shia Hazaras had quickly spread to almost every city in the country as Shias staged 'sit-ins' to express solidarity with the Hazaras, blocking roads, railway lines and bazaars. The protests paralyzed life and made the government look helpless. However, the sacking of the provincial government also generated controversy as certain political parties that were part of the coalition, along with dissident PPP lawmakers, began staging protests and demanded restoration of the government and election of a new chief minister by the Balochistan Assembly, which had not been disbanded. The Islamic party, JUI-F of Maulana Fazlur Rahman, as the second largest party in the coalition government, spearheaded the protests. Former Chief Minister Raisani, who was visiting the UK when he was sacked, also protested the removal of his government and termed it an undemocratic step that looked like a 'night-raid'. He argued that other provincial governments in the country also ought to be sacked as the security situation in those provinces was no better than in Balochistan. He also linked his sacking to his bold stand against the handing over of the gold mines at Riko Diq in Balochistan to foreign investors by vested interest groups. However, it was also a fact that his government, with an unwieldy cabinet of over 50 ministers hailing from several parties with diverse agendas, was directionless and corrupt. Raisani was often found outside Balochistan, spending time in Islamabad, Dubai and London instead of being at home tackling the pressing problems in a province suffering from low-intensity Baloch separatist insurgency, sectarian issues, economic disparity and political instability. The imposition of Governor's Rule calmed down the situation for about two weeks and the sectarian and terrorist attacks stopped. But the situation started deteriorating again when seven people were killed in different parts of Balochistan on January 30. Among them, four were stated to be Baloch separatists who had gone missing several months earlier. Such incidents are normally blamed by the Baloch nationalists on the intelligence agencies, but the government has been denying all such allegations. Finally, the terrorists managed to strike again in mid-February as a water tanker filled with explosives caused a massive explosion in the Hazara Town locality, killing over 100 people. It created another major crisis and the government this time sacked the provincial chief, quickly compensated the families of those killed and wounded by offering them cash, jobs and rehabilitation of their houses and businesses, and began targeted action against suspected Lashkar-i-Jhangvi militants. However, the targeted raids by the paramilitary Frontier Corps, which is made up of tribesmen and has officers drawn from the Pakistan Army, provoked protests by the religio-political group, Jamaat Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat, which alleged that those killed and injured weren't militants and terrorists. It even forced a strike in Quetta and staged protests in Karachi and other cities. Meanwhile, a new controversy was triggered when Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, the ISI, claimed it had provided information beforehand about the Quetta terrorist strike but the police and the civil administration failed to foil it. However, government officials said such warnings were of a vague nature as information about the date, place and nature of the attack was not provided. The Pakistan government also came under pressure to protect the Hazaras when Australia approached the UNHCR to offer asylum to 2,500 Hazara families. A significant number of Hazaras from both Afghanistan and Pakistan have over the years, in the aftermath of the Afghan conflict, sought asylum in Australia and many have risked their lives to reach the Australian shores by boats from Indonesia. Another headache for the government in Islamabad following the Hazara protests was the increasing tendency among protestors in different parts of the country to bring bodies of slain people to the streets and refuse to bury them until their demands were met. Taking a cue from the Hazaras, tribesmen from Bara in Khyber Agency also brought the bodies of 19 people slain by men wearing military uniform to Peshawar and put them on the road outside the Governor's House to stage a protest and seek justice. However, their protest was shortlived as the government took action within hours and sent policemen to use tear gas shells to disperse the protestors. There have been five limited military operations in Bara in which hundreds of people and soldiers have been killed and wounded and thousands of tribal people have been displaced. However, the situation is still unstable and uncertain in Bara, Tirah and some other parts of Khyber tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Many Pakistani politicians and analysts have linked the unrest and terrorist attacks in Balochistan to Pakistan's decision to give the contract to China to build and manage the Gwadar seaport and undertake other big projects in the mining sector, as they believe regional and world powers don't want the Chinese to have a presence on the Arabian Sea coast. It may be added that Pakistan's former Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtiar had once wished that China would help Pakistan build a naval base at Gwadar. Chinese engineers have been attacked and killed in terrorist attacks in Balochistan and also elsewhere in Pakistan. The situation in Balochistan is volatile and the Hazaras continue to feel insecure. Sardar Saadat Ali Khan, the Hazara tribal chief and son-in-law of late Pakistan Army chief General Muhammad Musa, who was himself from the Hazara community, told Asian Affairs that their community had lost 1,300 members in terrorist attacks in recent years and their children were losing hope and trying to leave the country. He said the Hazaras love Pakistan and around 250 of them were serving as officers in Pakistan's armed forces, but they need firm steps by the government to protect them from the militants. Although the government has undertaken measures to defend the Hazaras, the threat of further attacks remains and there is fear that the militants will strike again to avenge their recent losses in targeted operations against them by the Frontier Corps and police. The government has also announced plans to lift the Governor's Rule on completion of two months and restore the provincial government so that a caretaker government under the Constitution can be installed in Balochistan, as in the three other provinces, in time for the general election, expected to be held in May 2013. This is a constitutional requirement, but it would unnerve the Hazaras because the long election campaign and diversion of government machinery and resources, including the Frontier Corps, to provide security to political parties and candidates could leave them exposed and vulnerable to new attacks.
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