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#StopHazaraGenocide is trending on twitter. Lets learn about this community living in Afghanistan and why Taliban is attacking them.
The Hazaras are a predominantly Shia community, many of whom have fled to Sweden in recent years to escape abuse and poverty in marginalized communities in Afghanistan and Iran.
Seah Dukan Mosque attack
At least 35 #Hazara were killed and dozens of others injured in today's targeted terrorist attack on Seah Dukan Mosque, the oldest and biggest mosque of Hazara and shia in Mazari-i Sharif. Hazara community claims that Taliban is planting these bombs in Hazara dominated areas. Educational institutes and mosques being attacked, they prohibit other people from helping the injured students at the hospital and the journalists from reporting the incidents.
Why Taliban hates Hazaras?
Hazara has long faced discrimination in Afghanistan, particularly under the Taliban before the US invasion of the country in 2001. The minority group also faces significant persecution in Pakistan, where in January 2013 more than 120 people, mostly Hazaras, were killed in suicide bombings.
It is often claimed that the Hazaras are descendants of Genghis Khan and the Mongol soldiers who invaded Afghanistan in the 13th century, but genetic studies have shown some links with Mongolia, with their bloodlines also in Turkey and Tajikistan. can be seen. as native to the central Afghan highlands.
The notion that thousands are outsiders has persisted for centuries, with genocide against them common throughout Afghanistan's bloody history. Along with his ethnicity, being a Shia Muslim means that his religion has also made him a target, as Sunni Islamist rebels rage in southern Asia, radical Sunni considers him a heretic.
During the 1990s, when several militias fought for control of Afghanistan after the Soviet Union withdrew from the country, Hazara militias fought alongside other Shia groups and against Sunni fighters from al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
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Taliban commander Maulavi Mohammad Hanif reportedly told a crowd in northern Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, "Hazare are not Muslims, you can kill them." While many Hazare Shiites fled to Iran, those remained at risk of violence and even death.
Brutal incidents against Hazaras
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, one of the most brutal incidents occurred in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998, when hundreds of thousands were systematically executed. (Why Taliban hates Hazaras)
Thereafter, the Pashtuns laid siege to the Hazaras, treating the local Hazaras with inferiority, often perpetrating atrocities and arbitrary atrocities against them. This caused great unrest and deep hatred between the Hazaras and their Pashtun rulers, forcing the Hazaras to reach their peak in 1892.
Under the Sunni majority in Afghanistan, thousands faced discrimination in education, access to public services, and reduced economic opportunity. This also happened during the era of the Taliban, the previous short-lived government in Afghanistan. Recently, the Hazara have been the victim of deadly attacks by new elements of the Taliban or ISIS (or the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), the same group that is fighting in Iraq and Syria.
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This religious and ethnic persecution and the general precarious situation in Afghanistan encouraged the Hazaras to flee the country. While there are large Hazara communities in Canada, the United States, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand and Australia, many Hazaras have died trying to reach places like Australia via dangerous human smuggling routes.
Who are they?
The Hazaras are people who live mostly in the central, mountainous region of Afghanistan called the Hazarajat, with small communities living in neighboring Pakistan and Iran. There are about 2.7 million Hazaras in Afghanistan, and up to 150,000 in Pakistan. The Hazaras speak a dialect called Hazaragi, a variant of Dari, one of two official languages in Afghanistan that is also understood in Iran, which speaks Persian.
Ethnically, the Hazara have Asian characteristics and may be descendants of the Mongols under Genghis Khan, who lived from 1162 to 1227. Some Hazaras believe that they are descendants of one of Noah's sons. Most likely, they are related to Turkic, Uzbek or Iranian ancestors. Either way, the Hazara's Asian characteristics set them apart from most Afghans.
The Hazaras are mostly Shia, one of the branches of Islam. This has caused difficulties, as most of Afghanistan is Sunni, the second main branch of Islam. The Hazaras have a long history of insurgency and persecution against the main ethnic groups in Afghanistan, the larger Pashtun, and Tajik groups.
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