pakistan0614_ForUplaod

III. Impact of Violence on Quetta’s Hazara Community
The LeJ’s numerous attacks on Quetta’s Shia Hazara has had a profound impact on the
social, cultural, and economic life of that community. Since 2012, Quetta’s Hazara have
been compelled to limit their activities to the Hazara-dominated neighborhoods of
Marriabad and Hazara Town. As a result, they face increasing economic hardship, little
safe access to education, and severe limits on their freedom of movement.
Ramzan Ali, a shopkeeper whose brother Nadir Ali was killed in the April 9, 2012 attack on
Shia shopkeepers on Quetta’s Prince Road, believes that the attack was meant not only to
kill Hazara, but to worsen their already precarious economic situation. He described how
Hazara-owned businesses were being forced to move from other parts of the city into
Hazara-dominated neighborhoods for their safety:
After the attack my father kept the shop closed for one month. He then told
me to move the shop to Alamdar Road, in our own area [Marriabad], which
is where it is currently. It is very unsafe for us to move out of our area now. If
we do so it is at great risk to our lives. In the past many of us who had to go
out of Quetta for business used to travel by bus. However, now we avoid
buses, as it is very risky. We have been forced to travel by air, which is very
expensive. Due to these reasons we have suffered tremendously
economically. 140
That view was echoed by Najeebullah, the 18-year-old son of Mohammed Ali Ariz, a
medical doctor who was killed in the April 14, 2012 Brewery Road attack:
It is virtually impossible for us to go out of Hazara Town and if we do so, it is
at great cost to our lives. My father, like other members of our community,
received threatening phone calls from the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who want our
community to leave Pakistan.
140 Human Rights Watch interview with Ramzan Ali, January 7, 2013, Quetta.
“WE ARE THE WALKING DEAD” 42