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Statement Condemning the Terrorist attack on Hazaras (June 21, 2003)
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HAZARA UNITY USA
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A CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCACY ORGANIZATION
NEW YORK, USA
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Yet in another terrorist attack against the oppressed Hazara ethnic minority in the region, on June 8 2003, eleven Hazara young men were shot dead and nine other critically wounded in Quetta Pakistan, in what
strongly appears to be a racially motivated attack targeting the victims specifically because of their Hazara ethnic lineage.
While expressing sympathy with and offering condolences to the families of the victims and to the survivors, the New York based civil rights advocacy group, Hazara Unity USA strongly condemns this terrorist
attack, and calls on the Government of Pakistan to make serious and genuine efforts to capture the perpetrators of this attack and bring them to justice.
Hazara Unity USA emphasizes the fact that contrary to the religious and sectarian spin given to the attack by the ill-informed media and also by some ill-intentioned and self-serving quarters in the region, the
Hazaras have always been a target of severe repression, institutionalized discrimination, and systematic persecution in the entire region, mainly because of their ethnic background and racial identity.
This terrorist attack highlights the eminent danger and hostilities the Hazaras face, as a people, and the extreme sufferings they have been enduring in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran for decades. The ethnic
Hazaras have faced ever-increasing threats to their lives and violation of their civil rights and human dignity from the governmental institutions in Afghanistan and Iran, and from violent extremist groups in
Pakistan.
Hazara Unity USA therefore requests, in strongest terms, that the US Government, the Pakistani Government, the Government of Afghanistan and also the UN, and the Human Rights groups finally pay attention to the
sorrowful plight of the historically repressed and heavily persecuted Hazara ethnic minority in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran and take actions to protect them against further racial attacks and ethnically driven assaults by
the governmental establishments and the supremacist groups in the region.
Hazara Unity USA urges the UN and the human rights groups to take notice of the gross violation of the civil rights of the Hazara ethnic minority in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, and appeals to them to pressure
the governments in those countries to put an end to their policies of institutionalized repression and systematic persecution against the Hazara people.
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