Why hazaras are being targeted

Although the withdrawal of United States and allied forces from Afghanistan may be complete, Washington and the international community have an obligation to safeguard the rights of vulnerable populations and ensure the Hazara people are protected inside Afghanistan as well as given refugee protection abroad. View the discussion thread.

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This genocide is occurring now, on our watch. We can ask our senators and representatives in Congress to consider the Hazaras in plans that are being developed to enhance safety for people in Afghanistan and in refugee resettlement. They are at grave risk. Register by Oct. Ellen J.

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The return of the Taliban to power in Kabul has meant not only a rollback of the limited social gains the Hazaras had achieved, but also new atrocities against the community.

In August, Amnesty International reported that at least nine Hazara men were massacred by the Taliban when its fighters took over Ghazni province in July. Then earlier this month, the organisation released evidence of another massacre in which 13 Hazaras, including a year-old girl, were killed in late August in Daykundi province.

Taliban fighters forced over 4, Hazaras from their homes, claiming they had no ownership over their land, leaving them stranded without food or shelter as harsh winter approaches. In Mazar-e-Sharif, a local Taliban court decided to expel some 2, families, again based on false claims that they do not own their homes. By now there is a clear pattern of Taliban atrocities being committed across Afghanistan, which could mean that the Hazaras may be facing imminent ethnic cleansing.

The Taliban leadership may have moderated its rhetoric to please the international community, claiming that it will protect all ethnic groups, but it has done nothing to stem the growing number of crimes being committed by its fighters. What is more, the group has also clearly declared that it will only accept Hanafi jurisprudence, which would effectively preclude any accommodation of the Shia Islamic law and values followed by Hazaras.

Expectedly, no Hazara representative was included in the Taliban government announced in September. It is also not surprising that, despite the insistence by the Taliban that it can provide security and peace in Afghanistan, ISKP has continued its deadly attacks against the Hazaras.

In October, the bombing of a Hazara mosque in Kunduz resulted in the death of more than people. Another bombing of a Hazara mosque in Kandahar killed at least 47 people and wounded scores of others. Despite ample rhetoric on the need to protect religious minorities, regional players have also not stepped in to help the Hazara people. To understand the Taliban only as Muslim extremists, however, is to miss the political and economic reality of why and how they operate in Afghanistan.

Violence in the name of religion also helps the group expand its territory and enforce control. Their presence is a testament to an indigenous, pluralistic tradition of Islam that has accommodated multiple faiths over centuries, despite periods of brutal persecution.

For example, the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in the heart of Hazara territory were respected for centuries by the surrounding community, until they were destroyed by the Taliban in Second, Afghanistan is a weak state where many tribes and communities cooperate or compete for power. Since the American withdrawal, however, thousands of Hazara who withstood years of hardship and violence have sought refuge in Pakistan.