A blackmailed PM?

News Analysis

By Farhan Bokhari

A week after one of the bloodiest massacres of innocent civilians in Balochistan prompted a wave of protests across Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s latest choice of words has badly exposed his failure to grasp the reality.

“No premier of any country should be blackmailed like this,” remarked Khan on Friday in response to the protestors demanding his presence in Quetta before eleven corpses of Shia Hazara Muslims are finally laid to rest.

The protestors had put forward a largely innocent plea after years of recurring attacks on their community members. Any visitor to Quetta’s Behesht-e-Zainab cemetery will find it hard not to be emotionally touched or outraged, given the tragic accounts of the ‘Hazara’ martyrs noted on one tombstone after another across the sprawling ground. Widows and young orphans routinely assemble here every day notably on Thursdays to mourn their departed loved-ones. Across neighbourhoods such as Quetta’s Hazara town or the narrow alleys leading to Alamdar Road, homes led by young or middle-aged Hazara widows are scattered all over. It is here that visitors begin to catch a glimpse of the scars left by the continuing saga of bloodshed that has haunted the Hazara community for years. But there is also widespread evidence of unparalleled resilience that has helped the community survive what is one of the worst ordeals to hit any neighbourhood across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

Households that are still fortunate enough to be led by male members with an earning have come together to assist the widows and orphans survive. Yet, the insecurity that haunts this community remains a formidable challenge. Members of the Hazara community, who are conspicuous by their oriental features, are easy to spot by assailants. This has repeatedly made them prominent targets. The targeted victims have ranged from ordinary low income traders, labourers to members of the security community such as paramilitary forces. Their age brackets have ranged from the old to middle aged victims and even the young.

In recent years, the targeting of four Hazara women as they travelled in a bus in Balochistan immediately triggered popular fear over mounting danger to members of the community irrespective of their gender. In spite of being in the line of fire, the Hazara have largely remained loyal to Pakistan.

Notwithstanding periodic claims from their opponents suggesting new links for patronage to mainly Shia Muslim Iran next door, credible evidence to prove the charge has seldom been found. Old timers among the elders of the Hazara community occasionally talk of some of their bravest brethren, notably those who served in the service of Pakistan’s defence. Such sons of the soil have included prominent figures like the late General Muhammad Musa Khan, who led a Brigade of the Pakistan army during the first Kashmir war in 1947-48 and eventually led the army as commander-in-chief in the 1965 battle against India.

Others include retired Air Marshal Sharbat Ali Changezi - a notable hero of the 1965 war. But in recent years, following repeated attacks, the mood among the young has begun to change. Accounts of young Hazara men or women seeking to migrate away from the killing fields of Balochistan are found in plenty in Quetta. Their protests of the past week joined by sympathisers across Pakistan have triggered the danger of the community becoming further alienated from the mainstream.

For the moment, Prime Minister Khan’s ego may well fuel his refusal to visit Quetta unless the corpses of last weeks’ massacre are first laid to rest. But can he reverse what has become a weak link to Pakistan’s mainstream for a community that once considered itself unquestionably loyal to the unity of the country?