Sectarian strife and targeted killings continue to claim more victims by the day. DESIGN: FAIZAN DAWOOD
The past five years have been difficult for Balochistan according to statistics revealed by the home department. Violence in the province has claimed over 2,100 lives and left 3,845 injured in over 3,232 incidents of bomb blasts and rocket attacks in this period. Amidst rising sectarian strife and targeted killings, the government’s inability to deal with the situation appears more jarring than ever.
Throughout the province, sectarian killings remain the biggest challenge. From 2008 to 2012, 758 members of the Shia community were killed in 478 incidents. Of these, 338 victims belonged to the Hazara community, indicating that Hazaras remain the prime targets of these aggressions.
The province has become a base for a decade-long insurgency as well as a killing field for various sects. Banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi allegedly keeps targeting Shias throughout Balochistan. Accordingly, officials have beefed up safety measures from Quetta to Taftan and are even planning to hold meetings with interior ministry officials to discuss possible arrangements to facilitate the movement of Hazaras from Marriabad to Hazara Town and Hazar Ganji.
“The shia community, the Hazaras in particular, remains the prime target of violent groups in the province,” Balochistan Home Secretary Captain (retd) Akbar Durrani told The Express Tribune when asked about these statistics. “We are struggling against militants, but the situation is not as bad as [what is] being reported.”
He added that the increasing trend of violence in Balochistan is alarming, regardless of the disparity between the reported numbers and the actual happenings on the ground.
The findings also uncover staggering ‘kill and dump’ statistics. Around 570 dead bodies have been found strewn throughout the province, with 370 of the victims belonging to the Baloch community and 89 to the Pashtun community. The rest remain unidentified to this day.
Further still, over 402 non-Baloch have been killed in 498 incidents, and over 486 injured in multiple attacks.
Not surprisingly, security personnel have also suffered great losses. As many as 340 Frontier Corps personnel and 380 policemen have lost their lives in the line of duty, and 508 security officials in total have been left wounded.
Analysts say that despite the staggering figures, the provincial government is yet to review regulations pertaining to the movement of pilgrims under the Travel Agency Act of 1976. In one instance, police decided to refer the investigation of ‘sensitive cases’ to the Crime Investigation Department after the arrest of alleged terrorist Sher Dil of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, also known as Babu, in a bid to curb violence in Balochistan.
Sectarian target killings
Number of incidents: 478
Number of Hazaras killed: 338
Total number of members of the Shia community killed: 758
Loss of security personnel
Frontier Corps personnel killed: 340
Policemen killed: 380
Security officials wounded: 508
‘Settlers’/ Non-Baloch target killings
Number of incidents: 498
Number of those killed: 402
Number of those injured: 486
‘Kill and dump’
Total number of bodies found in sacks: 570
Number of victims from the Baloch community: 370
Number of victims from the Pushtun community: 89
Unidentified victims: 111
Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2013.
COMMENTS (8)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Its useless to comment coz it will never get post on this platform. Those who are blaming Pak Govt and security forces will be posted, not against Intelligence Agencies.
Dear Editor, This below sentence from the report requires some editing:
Perhaps, the author has meant, (to facilitate the movement of Hazaras from Quetta to Taftan), NOT "from Marriabad to Hazara Town and Hazar Ganji."
Number of victims are more than the given figures,there is sectarian violence in Baluchistan as shia and sunni killings are concern ,but what about the massacre dead bodies in packets received on routine basis of their loved ones....................
You guys will feel the pain when your loved ones are being targeted. Its unbelievable how many Shias they have killed in Balochistan only and when did we hang any of the killers? I mean do these people think they will never die and face God?
Stop blaming Iran. Shia scholers and Iran never let their followers target sunni mosques and sunni gatherings. On the other hand there is an ongoing shia genocide taking place in Pakistan.
the report doesn't tell about those who are caught for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (not targeted) but killed cause of violence.
These killings shows that Balochistan overall suffering because of poor law & order, No single community is safe.Not only Hazaras are suffering, Settlers & Baloch are equally suffering.
Security forces killings is 720 personnel.. More than any other killings.
These forces gave maximum sacrifices, still these are blamed for security issue just of because of Lack of co-ordination between between Police, intelligence and FC as well as the political strategy of political government.
i dont know about you, the most ignored aspect of this carnage has ALWAYS been the killing of 'settlers' by so-called Sarmachars.
the killing of Hazaras is part of a larger Iran-Saudi proxy war in Pakistan, where almost everyday guys from SSP-ASWJ-LeJ are killed in Karachi for last many years, and they retaliate by killing Hazaras, and the cycle continues.
the 'kill and dump' issue is controversial in which criminal gangs, tribal rivalries, enmities, etc are seldom talked about but rather all is blamed on ISI/MI/FC/Pakistan by those anonymous doofuses on twitter and their propaganda websites.
2100 innocent people lost their lives, majority of them belong to shia hazara community. Not a single culprit brought to justice. Sadly, the government has badly failed to provide security to its citizens.