On Hazaras

[Toramana]

Source: Adapted from The News, June 01, 2012
QUETTA: The dilemma of the Shias Hazara’s predicament is not that the solution is proving elusive, but that so far even the problem has not been fully understood. It’s a multifaceted issue. At a cursory glance, it may appears an ethnic issue, but it isn’t. They are being killed by Jihadi-sectarian militants (Lashkar-e-Jhangvi LeJ aka Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ASWJ, and Taliban) because of their faith identity (Shia sect). Their racial features make them a soft target because nobody needs to check their identity card to establish their Shia identity. The Shia Hazara suffering in Pakistan is a critical element in resolving the larger Balochistan conundrum and one whose impact will be felt in Afghanistan, Iran and beyond.

The Hazara question is largely misunderstood and misinterpreted by a majority of Pakistanis. Hazara activists were asked at a seminar recently why they supported a separate province in the Hazara area of Pakhtunkhwa. It was difficult to explain to the supposedly learned members of the Islamabad elite that Hazara as a people had nothing to do with Hazara the area in Abbottabad.

Yet the human side of the issue first must be taken into consideration before delving into its strategic dimension. One cannot ignore the extent of the injustices and crimes that have been committed against the Shia Hazaras of Quetta in the last couple of decades.

In the first phase, between 1999 and 2003, the targets (of LeJ, ASWJ, Taliban terrorists) were high-profile Shia Hazaras. The first of the 17 such killings was that of Sardar Nisar Ali Khan, then provincial minister of education. He was shot along with two others right outside his house. In the next phase, the strategy was to provoke fear. The assailants would choose a strategic place in a usually crowded area, mark their victim, open heavy fire on them and then melt into the same crowd. A dozen Hazara police cadets were killed in an ambush. A Friday congregation was attacked with AK-47s and grenades, killing 47 men, women and children and injuring 68. It was obvious that Hazaras had been identified as the ‘softest’ of targets to kill. Shias — easily distinguishable because of their Mongolian features — and the majority residing in and around their ghettos of Mehrabad (Marriabad) and Hazara town were a highly visible target. About two hundred people died in such indiscriminate firing till 2008.

Over 300 Shia Hazaras have been eliminated under the rule of the new democratic government. Balochistan government ministers have publicly pointed the finger of blame towards Pakistan army, Frontier Constabulary in particular, which appears to be the real government in Balochistan. Lost in these figures is the unmitigated tragedy of hapless people who have neither attacked nor retaliated against any community. So far, that is.

Olympian Boxer Abrar Shah, who was an icon among Shia Hazara was gunned down in broad day light. The ensuing phase saw massacres that seem like a recreation of Hitler’s ‘final solution’ for Jews. Religious processions were targeted with suicide bombings; mosques were attacked in the middle of prayers; Hazara labourers were mowed down in firing sprees.

No confusion exists about the perpetrators. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) has accepted responsibility for every incident. Yet the rate of conviction is dismally low. Usman Saifullah Kurd and Shafiq Rehman were the deadliest of the perpetrators. During their brief conviction in 2006 and 2007, the sectarian attacks had virtually stopped. But then both Kurd and Rehman mysteriously escaped from their cells inside the ultra high security ATF prison, itself located deep inside the military cantonment of Quetta. A Minority Support of Pakistan (MSP) report says that all signs point to “orchestration from the upper most levels of the military establishment.” Shia Hazara leaders claim that another culprit, Hafiz Usman, has confessed in custody that he was trained (at a military-run Jihadi camp) in Azad Kashmir.

“Sometimes the same gang has struck thrice in the same day, same city,” said Hazara leader Ahmad Ali Kozad. “Sometimes the killers have brazenly shot Hazara right in the middle of a bazaar between two check posts; nobody tried to stop them.” He pointed fingers at the “agencies” for their involvement.

However, non-Hazara Shias too are being killed in Balochistan by LeJ-ASWJ-Taliban militants. Shia Muslims of all ethnic backgrounds are being killed in all parts of Pakistan, a phenomenon which some activists now describe as Shia Genocide. Needless to say, Hazaras of Quetta, Toori Pashtuns of Parachinar and Baltis of Gilgit Baltistan are not being killed due to their ethnicity. Their enemies want to kill them due to their faith (Shia sect). This is clearly a case of target killing of Shia Muslims, Shia Genocide.

Shia Hazara are also the victims of a more insidious problem: the Pakistani state’s inability to prosecute sectarian murder and hate crimes and its demonstrated tendency to support known terrorist groups and individuals for so-called strategic purposes, says the MSP report. The report mentions that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s main leader Akram Lahori “purportedly continue to direct LeJ operations from their comfortably fitted jail cells, cell phones and private visitation rights. Heavy weights Malik Ishaq, along with his second-in-command Ghulam Rasool Shah have both been freed from house arrest and are currently travelling the country freely, giving sermons and convening large rallies.”

A spill over of the Afghanistan war is definitely at work. A mass migration of Hazara from Bamiyan and Hazarajat in Afghanistan, mostly because of Taliban persecution, has taken place. A new township of Hazara Town, which developed over the last 20 years may have irked some. Hazara in Afghanistan are seen more as allies of the Northern Alliance than Pakistan’s so-called strategic assets — Taliban, the parent organization of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Often media persons misrepresent LeJ-ASWJ as Sunni organizations, they are not. At the most, they represent a fringe Jihadi-Deobani sub-sect which has nothing to do with Sunnis. However, Jihadi-Deobandi extremists are not the only enemies Hazaras have. Some Baloch militants, particularly those infiltrated by the establishment, see the Hazara as supportive of the establishment. This helps in creating more chaos and mess in Balochistan in order to exonerate the real killers of Shia Hazaras, i.e., LeJ and its mentors and supporters. Hazaras may have the highest per capita representation in Pakistan Army. Almost 50 per cent of Balochistan’s army quota is availed by Hazaras, who may have at least 150 officers in the armed forces, 18 of them just in Quetta. Baloch also see better qualified Hazaras as competition in jobs and services. While some LJ members have been found to be Baloch, most leaders of LeJ including Malik Ishaq, Qari Saifullah Akhtar, Akarm Lahori etc are Punjabi. The infiltration of sectarianism in Balochs is a new phenomenon as Baloch have always known to be secular, let alone religious hardliners. And it is mostly from LeJ-ASWJ militants hiding in Baloch areas around Spinay Road and Brewery Road that Hazara get fired upon.

Pashtun also see Hazaras as competition in business and real estate. The location of district quotas as opposed to merit quotas has cut down Hazara representation drastically in government services. Supported by remittances from abroad, largely Australia, they are beginning to muscle their way into local business. This is increasingly bringing them into clash with local Pashtuns.

The arrival of Bamiyan Hazara may have also disturbed the ethnic balance in Quetta, which is contested by all communities. At the moment Hazara with two MPAs and one MNA seat are seen as overly represented in the Assemblies. Since both the Baloch and Pashtun nationalists boycotted the last elections, Nasir Shah Hazara managed to win the hotly contest Quetta seat. This has not gone down well with Baloch as well as Pashtun who have bigger claims on Quetta.

As if this was not already complicated, the FIA also keeps an eye on massive human trafficking and smuggling taking place among Hazaras. It’s a conduit point for many Afghan Hazaras who either get Pakistani passports to leave for Australia or Canada or try crossing over to Iran to enter Europe via Turkey. Abdul Khaliq Hazara of Hazara Democratic Party (a pro-establishment ethnocentric group) is known to be involved in such human trafficking.

Some misinformed or ill-intending journalists and analysts think that Shia Hazaras are a proxy of Iran. Such analysts ignore the linguistic, religious and historic relations between Farsi speaking Shia Hazaras and Iranians. Just because they are Shia makes them enemies of all those groups vying for Saudi funding. Amongst other factors, it also appears that the Hazara may just have landed at the crossroad of history at the wrong place, wrong time.

http://criticalppp.com/archives/78211

[Toramana]

Hazara Protest London (part 1 of 4) 03-10-2011 - YouTube

Protest against genocide of Hazara's in London Part 2 - YouTube

[Toramana]

From Hazarajat to Quetta: A sorry tale of Quiet Genocide of Hazaras – by Maisam Ali

The book said that my people had killed the Hazaras, driven them from their lands, burned their homes, and sold their women. The book said part of the reason they had oppressed the Hazaras was that they were Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras were Shi’a. The book said a lot of things I didn’t know, things my teachers hadn’t mentioned. The following week, after class, I showed the book to my teacher and pointed to the chapter on the Hazaras. He skimmed through a couple of pages, snickered, handed the book back. “That’s the one thing Shi’a people do well,” he said, picking up his papers, “passing themselves as martyrs.” He wrinkled his nose when he said the word Shi’a, like it was some kind of disease. – ‘The Kite Runner’ (Ch: 2, Para: 24)

Swirling winds traveling from the central highlands of Afghanistan when knock at the doors of Quetta city, the inhabitants of Hazara town and Alamdar road are the ones who can sniff the odor of blood the winds bring along. Blood that has been spilled relentlessly over the centuries has become the essential part of common consciousness of Hazara people. They have seen it being spilled, they have sensed it coming from the barbarians, they have smelled it arising from mass graves of their brethren in Afghanistan. The last decade has seen shift of altar from the steeps of Bamyan to the grounds of Quetta where the sanguinary ritual of slaughtering Hazaras is being performed now with the zeal getting more and more intensified with each passing day.

A rational analysis of frightening assault on Hazara Shias of Quetta would not be possible without taking into consideration the history of Hazaras in Afghanistan that is their native land. Hazara people are Turkic people and descendants of the Kushans. There are also Mongol influences in ten percent of Hazaras. The Hazarajat is the homeland of the Hazaras, and lies in the central highlands of Afghanistan, among the Koh-i-Baba Mountains and the western extremities of the Hindu Kush. Buddhas of Bamiyan are symbol of Hazara culture, art and history in Hazarajat. Buddhas of Bamyan were two 6th century monumental statues of standing Buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, that were intentionally dynamited and destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, after the Taliban government declared that they were “idols” (which are forbidden under Sharia law). Hazaras are third largest ethnic group of Afghanistan, forming about 9% of the total population. Over half a million Hazaras live in neighboring Pakistan (especially in the city of Quetta) and a similar number in Iran. They are predominantly Shia Muslims, mostly of Twelver sect and some Ismaili. Hazaras converted to Shi’aism during the reign of the Il-Khanate ruler Oljeitu (1304–1316), and during the first part of the 16th century, in the early days of the Safavid Dynasty.

Hazaras have centuries’ long history of subjugation and persecution for being adherents of minority sect and being minority ethnic group. Apart from the medieval days, in their modern history, Hazaras have faced persecution and forced displacement during the reign of Abdur Rahman Khan, who was Emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901, when from the period of 1888-1893 thousands of Hazaras were massacred since Abdur Rahman Khan had declared ‘Jihad’ against infidel Shiites. Some 35,000 families fled to northern Afghanistan, Mashhad (Iran), Quetta (Pakistan), and even as far as Central Asia. It is estimated that more than 60% of the Hazara population were massacred or displaced during Abdur Rahman’s campaign against them.

S.A.Mousavi writes about that period in “The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study”.

“Thousands of Hazara men, women, and children were moved to Mountain area from their land and Kabul and Qandahar, while numerous towers of human heads were made from the defeated rebels as a warning to others who might challenge the rule of the Amir.”

With the Taliban’s capture of Kabul in 1996, all the Hazara groups united with the new Northern Alliance against the common new enemy. However, it was too late and despite the fierce resistance Hazarajat fell to the Taliban by 1998. The Taliban had Hazarajat totally isolated from the rest of the world going as far as not allowing the United Nations to deliver food to the provinces of Bamiyan, Ghor, Wardak and Daykundi. During the years that followed, Hazaras suffered severe oppression and many large ethnic massacres were carried out by the predominately ethnic Pashtun Taliban and are documented by such groups as the Human Rights Watch. These human rights abuses not only occurred in Hazarajat, but across all areas controlled by the Taliban. Particularly after their capture of Mazar-e Sharif in 1998, where after a massive killing of some 8000 civilians, the Taliban openly declared that the Hazaras would be targeted. Mullah Niazi, the commander of the attack and governor of Mazar after the attack, similar to Abdur Rahman Khan over 100 years ago, declared the Shia Hazara as infidels:

“Hazaras are not Muslim, they are Shi’a. They are kafir [infidels]. The Hazaras killed our force here, and now we have to kill Hazaras… If you do not show your loyalty, we will burn your houses, and we will kill you. You either accept to be Muslims or leave Afghanistan… wherever you go we will catch you. If you go up, we will pull you down by your feet; if you hide below, we will pull you up by your hair.”

Let’s, without going into details of May 2000 massacre at Robatak, and January 2001 massacre in Yakaolang, by Taliban regime, analyze the predicament of Hazara Shias in Quetta.

Historically, Balochistan has remained a secular and tolerant society. It has remained home to Muslims belonging to all sects of Islam, Hindus and other religious minorities. Most glaring evidence that can be put forward is that at the time of partition it was only Balochistan province that was not abandoned by the Hindus. As with the overturn of Taliban regime in Afghanistan by NATO, dregs of Taliban and Al-Qaeda started taking shelter in tribal belt of Khyber Pukhtunkwa and Balochistan with complicity of state of Pakistan who had already done a lot to kill infidel Shias by collaborating with Taliban when LeJ and SSP, the proxies of infamous ISI, fought side by side with Talibs in Mazar-e-Sharif. Critical analysis of spate of violence against Hazara Shias reveals that first major onslaught against them was during February, 2001 when five Hazaras died in terrorist attack on a Passenger van. The year of 2003 proved more fatal for Hazara Shias when on june 8, 2003 ‘unidentified’ terrorists killed 12 Hazara policemen in Quetta and then that worst attack of its own kind when on July 4, 2003 two suicides bombers blew themselves up in Hazara mosque killing about 60 people. The inhumane attack was perpetrated by the hardliner militant outfit LeJ with the support of dregs of Taliban who had taken sanctuary in Balochistan, as vengeance against Shia Muslims since the Shias of Pakistan by and large had kept away from the street protests against the US bombing of Afghanistan because they had not forgiven the massacre of the Shias of Afghanistan (the Hazaras) by Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The TEJ (the Tehrik-e-Jaffria, the main Shia political organisation of Pakistan) and the Sipah Mohammad (the TEJ’s militant wing) had maintained a studied silence on the invasion. These were the Shia Hazaras most vulnerable to such onslaught who bore the brunt given the centuries’ long history of persecution and presence of Talibs in Balochistan who could have proved most instrumental in contemplating massive attacks in collaboration with sectarian outfits against Hazaras.

The years ahead proved more dreadful for Hazaras. Targets had been set and resources were readily available given the complicity of security agencies in Balochistan. On March 2, 2004 a group of suicide bombers attacked a Muharram procession killing 80 Hazaras and critically injuring another 150. Years ahead saw unabated spate of violence against Hazara Shias and target killings of them motivated on sectarian bases. Had the violence been ethnically motivated, there wouldn’t have been ethnic harmony between Balochis and Hazaras in Quetta over the period of almost one hundred years when first Hazara came to Quetta in 1890. There are ulterior motives of state hell bent on inciting and assisting the sectarian violence in city. This is what Syed Nasir Ali Shah, A Hazara and member of national assembly, has to say about it.

“Those who are carrying out these assaults are trying to create sectarian disharmony between the Sunni and Shia sects in Quetta,” he said, adding that the target killings were meant to widen the gulf between the Sunnis, Shias and Hazaras against the local Baloch and Pashtuns.The killings are not Hazara-specific. The slayings are religiously motivated, Shah said, adding the acts were being carried out by forces that wanted to convert Balochistan into a ‘Talibanised’ province.”

In the last couple of years, almost on every average day, there is a Hazara targeted-killing of high-profile personalities, professionals and other times ordinary citizens. Here’s an excerpt from editorial of Daily Times published after attack on Hazara Shias on May 6, 2011 that killed 8 innocent people.

“Preliminary police investigation reveals it was a sectarian attack. The audacity with which this attack has been carried out boggles the mind. In a highly coordinated assault, after firing rockets from the nearby mountains, about a dozen terrorists appeared on the site in vehicles, lobbed hand grenades and started indiscriminate firing… It is alarming that, despite being banned, these outfits are operating with impunity in the length and breadth of Pakistan. Strangely, in a highly sensitive area such as Quetta, which is in the grip of an insurgency, no prior intelligence was available to law enforcement agencies about this attack… Frontier Corp and intelligence agencies have gained notoriety for their highhandedness in dealing with Balcoh activists, whom they illegally detain, torture and murder. How is it possible that they did not know of the presence of sectarian outfits and their activities in the area? Where was the police when this was happening? It is time the law enforcement agencies revamped their priorities and focused on protecting the citizens by rooting out militant sectarian networks and remaining vigilant about any such presence in their area.” -Source

Here for setting the record straight for armchair pseudo journalists who are in habit of ‘revealing’ connections between Iran and each and every Shia movement in Pakistan, be it political or religious, by exhibiting utmost intellectual and professional dishonesty. The HDP (Hazara Democratic Party) is a liberal, social democratic party which overwhelmingly represents Hazaras of Quetta. The HDP traces its roots to “Tanzáim-e nasl-e naw-e Hazara” that was a party of Hazara nationalists and secular intellectuals based in Quetta during the last half of twentieth century. Hussain Ali Yousafi, the founder of HDP, who was assassinated by LeJ in 2009, was also an executive member of “Tanzáim-e nasl-e naw-e Hazara” for several years during 1980s. “Tanzáim-e nasl-e naw-e Hazara” is the same political party that had fought against the rival Hazara political faction backed by pro-Khomeini Islamic regime during the soviet war in Afghanistan. By 1979, the Iran-backed Islamist groups liberated Hazarajat from the central Soviet-backed Afghan government and later took entire control of Hazarajat away from the secularists. By 1984, after severe fighting, the secularist groups lost all their power to the Islamists. For further consolidating the fact here’s press release of Hazara Democratic Party issued on April 2, 2011 which is strongly critical to Iranian Islamic regime.



This Eid has seen thirteen of them drowned in their own blood while entire country was busy in celebrating the festive. The blood was probably cost of their faith they have been paying for long ago to live in societies ruled by savages. The blood screamed and yelled for a while amidst the deafening silence of corridors of power but at last had to perish. The very next day bodies of ‘infidels’ were buried wrapped in coffins printed with ‘Labaik Ya Hussain’ instead of the green flag. Whatever, they were not the ‘martyrs of nation’ but the dead of darkest lanes. End of story leaving behind a surreal question: Is this the one thing Shia people do well “Passing themselves as martyrs”?

http://criticalppp.com/archives/56664

[Toramana]

Muhammad Musa

General Muhammad Musa Khan Hazara H.Pk., HJ, HQA, MBE, IDC, psc (موسى خان) (1991−1908), was the Commander in Chief of Pakistan's Army. He succeeded Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who assumed the Presi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_Khan

Deedar e Air Marshal R Sharbat Ali Changezi Part1-6 - YouTube

Air Marshal (R) Sharbat Changazi
Air Marshal (Retired) Sharbat Ali Changazi has served in Pakistan Air Force and made it to the highest military rank. His father left Afghanistan in 1880s due to ethnic subjugation of Hazaras, and joined the British Army in then India. Sharbat Changazi joined Pakistan Air Force after completing his education. He now spends his retirement years with his family in Karachi.
In 2007, Sharbat Changazi delivered a lecture in Quetta about the history of Hazaras. Here we are publishing, courtesy of Tanzeem-e-Nasle Nau Hazara Mughal, a part of his lecture about his memories as Air Attache in the Embassy of Pakistan, Kabul, during the 1970s. Later on we will publish the other part of his lecture about the origin and history of Hazara.
“I had heard about the inhumane treatment meted out to our people by the rulers in Afghanistan. Most of it I learnt from my parents. My father left Afghanistan at the age of 18 and came to Peshawar, then British India. He had spent about 10 years in Kabul before leaving Afghanistan for good around the end of the nineteenth century, and, joined the British Indian Army in 1903 or so. My mother had left Afghanistan in the middle of winters, when she was seven years of age. By my reckoning she was born in 1892 and left Afghanistan around 1900. Their family settled in Fariman near Mashhad, Iran. My maternal first cousins still live in Farimen and Mashhad. Both my parents, though young, had seen firsthand some of the atrocities committed by the rulers of Afghanistan against the Hazara tribe. Similarly, I had heard harrowing stories from other Hazara people. Naturally the stories of atrocities committed against our people had left a major impact on my mind, like it did, I think, on every Hazara’s mind. The difference however, was that I was born and brought up at Quetta, in British India. My thinking was not subdued like hazaras under Durrani rule. Thus I could easily let out my frustration, which, I think, I did.
King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan had landed at Mauripur Base and was being entertained in the Officers Mess. Thus, in 1955, when as young Flying Officer (23 years old or so) in the Officers Mess Mauripur, the Station Commander Group Captain Steven Joseph, an Armenian Christian and Pakistani national, said to me that he would like to introduce me to the visiting King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, I politely told the Station Commander that I did not want to meet the visiting King. When questioned why, I said that his ancestors had been extremely cruel to our people in Hazarajath of Afghanistan during the last 60-70 years. He chuckled at my reply and said that you must be a true Mongol to harbour a grudge for so long and that too about something their ancestors did to you ancestors! Group Captain Steven Joseph was a scholarly man and was well informed about the history of this region. He, as an Armenian, no doubt, knew about the treatment Armenians received at the hands of Turkish people. Having being persecuted in their history he could appreciate my state of mind so he did not insist. Little did I know that some 17 years later I would be posted as an Air Attache in Pakistan’s Embassy at Kabul, Afghanistan, when Zahir Shah would still be the King.
I was to arrive in Kabul in early 1972 to take over as the Air Attache in the Embassy of Pakistan, but due to exigencies of service my departure was delayed by ten months. I, along with my family, arrived at Kabul in January, 1973. After settling down we decided to go shopping. We were surprised to discover that most Hazara shopkeepers in Kabul not only welcomed us very warmly but also knew who we were and that they apparently were anticipating our arrival. Their warmth towards us was a very good feeling indeed.
During the period (1973-1976) while I was serving as Air Attache in our Embassy at Kabul, at a social gathering, Brigadier General Suleman Rokhai, a Mohamadzai, and married to the sister of the Queen of Afghanistan, thus, making him the brother in law (Hamzulf) of King Zahir Shah, asked me as to how come you call yourself Changezi. I asked him how come most Mohamadzai call themselves Durrani. He did not ask any more questions. He was a very good man, and as a Mohamadzai was connected to the ruling clique of Afghanistan. For nearly 100 years by then, they had been rulers. He may have, as an arrogant royalty, thought how can a Hazara dare call himself Changezi, when the Hazara tribe in Afghanistan had been brought down to serfdom, by Rakaie’s own ancestors.
We soon discovered that I was constantly followed by Afghan intelligence agencies. My residence was also under surveillance. The surveillance intensified after Daud took over in early 1973. Pakistan – Afghanistan relations were not good. Afghanistan indulged in propaganda against Pakistan through radio Kabul incessantly.
Then suddenly, on radio Pakistan, anti-Afghan propaganda started with equal or more vehemence, in Hazaragi and Dari. One night after a dinner at the residence of the Indian military Attache, as my wife and I came out of the house, General Rokhai Suleman and his wife, the sister of the Queen, bid farewell to the Indian Colonel and came out. It was bitterly cold and, and had in the earlier part of the day, snowed. General Suleman asked me as to why Pakistan continues to indulge in such intense propaganda against the ruling family and the Government of Afghanistan. In the Hazargi programmes you people even curse our ancestors like King Abdul Rehman and others. It is not a good thing. After all Afghanistan is your country as well. Why don’t you get these propaganda programmes stopped? I asked him how could I stop propaganda campaigns between two countries. He said all these progranmmes started after your arrival in Afghanistan. I was taken aback at such a direct accusation. I said that you are a very important person in Afghanistan. You are the Chief of Protocol in the Ministry of Defence. You are a general, besides being the brother in law (Humzulf) of the King. Could you get the Afghan radio propaganda against Pakistan stopped? He said that such things were beyond his authority. I told him if a general of such outstanding credentials like him cannot stop Afghan propaganda then how can a Group Captain of Pakistan Air Force have any influence in getting the Pakistani government’s policies changed? He smiled and his wife took a sigh of relief as she wanted to go home. It was bitterly cold. My wife also was impatiently waiting to go home, thus we quickly left for our cars after normal friendly salutations, etc.
After arrival at Kabul in January 1973, I, accompanied by my brief family, called on senator Nadir Ali Khan Jaghori, the leading Hazara of Kabul . He lived in the outskirts of Kabul near Silo. Silo was a grain storage facility. His daughter was married to Doctor Zamin who was the son of retired honorary Captain Ali Dost of Hazara Pioneers (British Indian Army) of Quetta. Nadir Ali Khan was an appointed senator in Zahir Shah’s political setup. Hazaras of Kabul did not trust the senator. He continued to remain a senator after Zahir Shah was overthrown by his cousin Sardar Daud. It was well known that immediately after Daud’s coup Mr. Nadir Ali Khan had gone to Sardar Daud to swear allegiance to the new regime. Thus he was allowed to continue as Senator. After Daud’s takeover, political tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan heightened dramatically, mainly , perhaps because of the very enhanced visible Russian influence in Afghanistan. During the uncomfortable political atmosphere, the verbal war through radio broadcasts between Pakistan and Afghanistan had immensely intensified.
One day, most unexpectedly, I received a message from Senator Nadir Ali that he wished to see me. This message was conveyed through the owner of a shop from where we used to purchase our groceries. The shop owner was a well known Hazara tribal loyalist. I was to meet the senator at night in a vacant plot of land at a certain place in Share Nau, Kabul. The messenger and I visited the specified location during daylight hours. The messenger told me not to trust Senator Nadir Ali as he is most untrustworthy. A message like this suggesting that I should meet a foreign senator (although a Hazara of Afghanistan), surruptiously, in the darkness of night, would naturally arouse suspicion in anyone’s mind. I was curious to find out what the senator had in mind. That could only be gauged after meeting him. I therefore decided to see him at the appointed place. I arrived at the appointed time at the vacant plot of land. The area was totally dark. A few minutes later the senator approached me. After usual pleasantries the Senator said that Daud regime was deadly against the Hazaras and the time has come for the Hazaras to rise. Government of Pakistan should give us weapons so that we can start a war of resistance against Daud regime. Such a dangerous suggestion coming from a person like Senator Nadir Ali obviously pointed to a more sinister plan. A man who would not travel from Kabul to Herat where his son was posted, without the permission of the ministry of Interior, was talking about a war of resistance against his own and his ancestor’s benefactors. That too, for the sake of Hazaras, was, to say the least, unbelievable. No doubt , he was the grandson of Sardar Sher Ali. I told the Senator the following:-
a) That, in the last ninety years or so the Durrani Kings have destroyed the very fabric of Hazara society in Afghanistan. In a monarchy, Hazaras had no voice. That, for the first time, the monarchy has been overthrown by the armed forces. Afghanistan has been declared a republic with Sardar Daud as the President. And, on taking over power the President of Afghanistan promised to introduce true democracy (Democracy- e- Haqiqi) in his very first address to the nation. That, Hazaras should ask President Daud for their rights and declare their allegiance to the new born republic.
b) That the job of Air Attaché is to cement brotherly relations between two Air Forces and the two countries. Air Attachés do not get involved in political intrigues.
The Senator was not satisfied. He asked me to think about it and let him know about my decision. We departed after usual pleasantries.

Air Marshal Sharbat Changazi lecturing about Hazara origins and history.
I had no doubt in my mind that he was doing all this on behalf of the Afghan government. The purpose was to trap me and get me declared as persona–non-grata. That would have created a huge diplomatic crises between the two governments, with Afghanistan having an upperhand . This also would have once again proved Senator Nadir Ali’s loyalty to Afghanistan at the cost of an innocent Pakistani Hazara Air Force officer’s future career. By the grace of the Almighty, senator Nadir Ali remained unsuccessful.
The shopkeeper met me soon thereafter and was extremely anxious to know about the Senator’s desire for the meeting, especially when the political tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan had become intense after Daud’s coup. I apprised him about what the senator had requested for, and, my response. He was relieved to hear about my response to the senator.
On my arrival in Afghanistan I had noticed that Hazaras were really downtrodden. They had suffered inhuman treatment at the hands of Abdul Rehman. Abdul Rehman wanted to subjugate all of Afghanistan. His natural allies were the British in India. British being wary of the expanding Russians Empire, wanted a buffer zone between the British Empire boundaries and Russian Empire limits. Abdul Rehman was helped by the British in every possible way to consolidate his power in Afghanistan. Abdul Rehman used excessive force even against his own people of Pashtun descent to subjugate them. He did not spare anyone, the Uzbeks, the Tajiks, the Turkomans and the Hazaras. He was extremely cruel and treacherous in dealing with his opponents.
Besides the consolidation of his hold on entire Afghanistan he had another agenda of his own. He wanted the entire Afghanistan to be populated by the Pashtun people, therefore, de-population of other established tribal areas was absolutely necessary for his scheme of things to be achieved.
Hazarajat was not easily accessible, and independent Khans were ruling their own areas. They were powerful and they therefore resisted. Abdul Rehman levied extremely heavy taxes. People revolted. By various methods consisting of deceit, bribery, cajoling, honouring some Khans, treachery and extreme cruelty, he managed to eventually subdue the Hazaras. Then by a Fithwa, Hazaras were declared Kafirs. They were enslaved, their women and children were sold. Naturally the process of depopulation started. Following two maps will indicate how the Hazara territories were reduced to 1/3rd of its original size [Maps were displayed at the lecture, and are currently not available with Hazaristan Times].
However Amanullah Khan abolished slavery but by then Hazaras had been reduced to do only menial work and were looked down upon. Their status had become that of second class citizens. Hazaras had lost everything. The flow of migration continued to Russia, India, Iran and Central Asian countries. The resilience and deep rooted anger however remained as a part of the psyche of every Hazara.
No wonder, that as a young Flying Officer I had in 1955, refused to be presented to King Zahir Shah, who was at that moment present in the PAF Officer’s Mess Mauripur Karachi. No wonder that I wanted Changazi to be added to my name as my family name. I think the reason for both my decisions was the desire to be proud of being Moghol. I Suppose subconsciously I wanted to tell everyone that I am not ashamed of being a Hazara Moghol, irrespective of the degradation my people may have suffered at the hands of Pashtun kings and his tribesmen for 120 years or so.
No wonder that the most subdued Hazaras of Kabul were so warm and friendly towards me. They were proud to see a Hazara in that position. I, however, did not know that I was in fact witnessing the last few years of Hazara sufferings in Afghanistan. I did not know that after only three years i.e, in 1979, the cycle of Hazara resurgence will commence.
In my private thoughts I hoped that there should be communist takeover in Afghanistan. I was sure communist rule, as per its philosophy, had to treat the Hazaras as equal citizens. This seemed inevitable as Russain advisors were posted in all the ministries after Daud’s take over.
In 1979 the arrival of Soviets in Afghanistan was the beginning of Hazara revival. Monarchy had been abolished in 1973. Dictatorship of Daud was, in fact, a step further away for Hazaras from atrocities of Durrani monarchy. Since 1979 Hazaras have gone through many phases of revival. There were major upheavals. Rapid Changes kept most things out of focus. These rapid changes brought forward a Hazara to be Prime Minister of Afghanistan. This would have been impossible under Durrani Monarchy in Afghanistan.
The result of all those cycles, has been the revival of Hazara pride.
The persecution that started in the end of 19th Century lasted till 1990s. After the departure of Soviets, once the civil war started amongst the various tribes and tribal warlords, Hazaras started to reemerge. As expected, a misjudgment and a misplaced trust cost the Hazaras a tremendous loss. How could Abdul Ali Mazari trust his historically known enemies, is beyond my comprehension. Rise of Taliban once again made Hazaras faced with persecution and genocide. It is sad that the United Nations never took notice of this genocide. One lesson, however, must never be forgotten by the next generations of Hazaras. Never trust the treacherous people that have always failed you in your past history, even if they are Hazaras.
In Afghanistan of post 9/11, status of the Hazara people is totally different from the one they had to suffer under the Durrani rule for 120 horrible years. Today Hazaras are found in every walk of life. They hold their head high with pride. I hope and pray that Hazaras elsewhere learn a lesson from the long sufferings of our forefathers in Afghanistan.
Special thanks to Mirza Azad, General Secretary of Tanzeem-e-Nasle Nau Hazara Mughal, for providing exclusive photos to Hazaristan Times.

http://ataullahnaseri.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/air-marshal-sharbat-ali-changazi/