We Are All Hazara…
By Ghazala Akbar
London, UK
Of late, there have been many harrowing images in Pakistan. We are used to them one might say, almost blasé, and nonchalant, thick-skinned, immune. But one recent image in particular disturbs our equanimity -- the distressing sight of citizens of Pakistan – who also happen to be ethnic Hazaras, -- who also happen to be Shia Muslims keeping a vigil over the bodies of their loved ones, refusing to bury them unless the Army takes control of the city. They include mothers who sit with the decomposing bodies of their sons. They sit in sub-zero temperatures and driving rain with patience and resolve. They have come to the point where they can take it no more. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
This surreal scene is a visual manifestation of the depths we have plunged in our downward spiral towards intolerance, hate and bloodlust. It is a damning verdict on the failure and apathy of the government and those in authority to protect its citizens. It is a bloody stain on our collective national conscience. For Sunni Muslims, who constitute the majority of the Muslim population in the country, it is time to call a spade a spade. There is no beating around the bush. Shia Muslims are being killed by extremists who are Sunnis. It is happening every day. It is happening all over. It is too frequent to ignore. We cannot look the other way. By our silence and inaction, we embolden and encourage the attackers and give tacit approval.
For years we have read of doctors, lawyers, religious leaders and ordinary citizens being picked off and killed. Automatically, reflexively we file these killings under the euphemism, sectarian strife. We pretend that the murders are the result of a tit for tat exercise by lunatic fringes that operate on both sides. We hear of attacks on religious processions, we dismiss them as the inevitable violence that invariably happens in the month of Muharram. Buses are stopped, IDs checked, people are lined and shot; we label it under the all-encompassing designation of terrorism, part of the ongoing violent landscape. Poor wretched souls, but what have they to do with us. We are part of the majority. We are safe.
Meanwhile we respond with alacrity in the defense of our co-religionists elsewhere in the world. We march against blasphemous cartoons and films. We shed tears for the victims in Gaza, Gujarat, Burma, but we cannot see the ones being killed in our own backyard. We shrug our shoulders and say ‘sectarian war’ as if this was self-explanatory, a valid excuse. We are in serious denial or plain liars. There is no sectarian war or conflict between two armed sides. These are no ordinary killings between rival sects. There is only one group. There is only side…and they are dying in larger and larger numbers. Over a hundred people snuffed out in Quetta on January 9 th for no other reason than the fact that they were Shia Muslims. If this doesn’t convince us, nothing will.
With a War on Terrorism in progress, it is tempting to explain these killings as another facet of the general mayhem that takes the lives of Pakistanis of all faiths and all ethnicities. Civilians, security personnel, teenage girls who just want an education, everyone is part of the collateral damage. We are victims too. True. What’s so special if Shia Muslims feature high in the body count? True. Terrorists make no distinctions when they plant their bombs or explode their suicide vests. True. But it is also true that within the general narrative there is a sinister sub-plot which has nothing to do with drone attacks, fighting American occupation or supporting the Afghan Taliban. This not-so-secret agenda is home-grown and home-sponsored.
Under the umbrella of Jihad, two birds are being killed with one stone. The same bullets and bombs are also being used as cover for a murderous side operation, the killing of Shia Muslims. They are top on the hit list. They are in the cross hairs, they are sitting ducks -- the center of the target, bull’s eye. For the majority in Pakistan, who happen to be Sunni, it is time to wake up and take note. The writing is on the wall. If we do not acknowledge this slow extermination, we are just as guilty of complicity and acquiescence as the ordinary citizens of Nazi Germany who pulled down their shutters when their Jewish neighbors began to disappear. See no evil, hear no evil, talk no evil is not an option. Ignorance, obfuscation or burying our heads in the sand does not, will not, constitute a defense. ‘Don’t know’ is the same as saying ‘don’t care.’
If indifference stands in the way of pointing our moral compass towards all-out support of the Hazaras in particular and all Shias Muslims in general, then perhaps an instinct for our own self-preservation should goad us to action. Consider this: on bloody Thursday, January 10, there was also an attack on a religious seminary in Swat which killed twenty-two. It was one group of Sunnis against another. Deobandi versus Deobandi. This is a pointer towards the way things will unfold. ‘Revolutions’ turn inwards, devouring their adherents. Being in a majority is no protection or guarantee of safety. The noose is tightening around all our necks. In their eyes, we are all Hazara, we are all Shia, we are all kafirs. Make no mistake, they are coming for us too.
