PAKISTAN: HAZARA COMMUNITY MUST BE PROTECTED

This horrific loss of life is a painful reminder of the threats that Quetta’s Quetta’s Hazara community continues to face. Targeted for their religion by sectarian armed groups, they have suffered many such tragedies over several years

Responding to the horrific bombing of an open-air marketplace in a neighbourhood where many members of Shi’a Hazara community live in Quetta that killed at least 16 people and wounded several others on the morning of 12 April 2019, Amnesty International’s Deputy South Asia Director, Omar Waraich, said:

“This horrific loss of life is a painful reminder of the threats that Quetta’s Hazara community continues to face. Targeted for their religion by sectarian armed groups, they have suffered many such tragedies over several years. Each time, there are promises that more will be done to protect them, and each time those promises have failed to materialize.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government has made important commitments to protect all religious groups in the country. Those commitments must translate now into policies to effectively protect the Hazaras of Quetta, ending more than a decade of bloodshed that has scarred their community.”