Dozens of civil society activists have been on hunger strike in front of UNAMA office in Kabul against the genocide of Hazaras in Pakistan. Condition of 13 in Bamiyan strike is seriously critical as they were forced to hospital by Governor Sarabi yesterday. Protests demonstrations have been held in major cities around the world from London to Sydney to urge international community’s reaction against a genocide to which the state of Pakistan has turned blind eye and victims blame complicity of the country’s military intelligence agencies.
MPs, Vice President Karim Khalili, opposition leader Ahmad Zia Massoud and others joined the strike camp in Kabul and demanded the UN Security Council to take immediate notice and further steps on a crime against humanity unfolding before the eyes of the international community. The demands of strikers include a UN blacklist of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an Al-Qaeda allied terror group in Pakistan and global call for action against it.
An Afghan parliamentary delegation led by National Front leader Haji Muhaqiq is also in Islamabad. In their meetings with Foreign Minister Kher and Prime Minister Ashraf, they have condemned the genocide of an ethno-sectarian minority in Quetta city of Pakistan.
According to Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by UN General Assembly, “Any act committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”. In last ten years, about 1200 members of the minority Pakistani Hazaras have been killed by LeJ, with threats to wipe out the community.
Under the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court, the killings in Quetta constitute genocide and a crime against humanity. The UN Security Council should take notice and intervene to stop a humanitarian crisis in Pakistan where the state, at best, is unwilling to take action against perpetrators, and at worst is complicity with death squads.
Thousands of relatives of victims in Quetta’s latest LeJ bombings have been in a protest sit-in for last three days under rain in sub-zero temperature, calling for international help. In the latest bombing on February 16, over 100 people were killed. Last month, in a suicide attack 118 people were killed on Jan 10. LeJ claims responsibility for all these attacks, yet their leaders roam free across Pakistan. The world needs to intervene before a genocide happens in full.