| Machh attack | |
|---|---|
| Part of the insurgency in Balochistan, Sectarian violence in Pakistan, and the persecution of Hazara people | |
| Location | Machh, Balochistan, Pakistan |
| Date | 3 January 2021 |
| Deaths | 11 |
| Perpetrator |  Islamic State – Khorasan Province |
| Motive | Anti-Shi'ism, Islamic extremism |
On 3 January 2021, a group of Islamic State (IS) militants killed 11 Hazara coal miners after being kidnapped in Machh, Balochistan, Pakistan. [1]
The miners were on their way to work when the gunmen ambushed and dragged them into the nearby mountains. [2]
All 11 miners were blindfolded and had their hands tied behind their backs before having their throats slit. Video of the miners' murders shows the dead men strewn out on the floor of a village hut. The victims were members of the minority Shia community. [3]
Not long after the attack, Hazaras blocked roads and burned tires in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province. They gathered to protest the terror attacks on them and to demonstrate their minority rights. They demanded that the Prime Minister visit them and personally assure them that justice would be served in the case of the lynched miners. [4]
A demonstration organized by the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen in Karachi continued for three days at over twenty locations in the city. [5] [6] Balochistan's Shia Hazara community continued a sit-in protest with the dead bodies for six straight days on Quetta's Western Bypass, refusing to bury the murdered miners. [7] [8]
The government ordered the law enforcement agency to investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice, with Prime Minister Imran Khan denouncing the murders as "an inhumane act of terrorism". [9] [10]
The Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad also visited the families of the victims and assured them that the culprits involved in the attack will be brought to justice at all costs. He expressed condolences to the families of victims and announced compensation for them. [11] The attack was also condemned by Afghanistan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan stated that seven Afghan Hazaras were among the 11 miners who were killed. [12]
On January 9, 2021, the miners were buried at Hazara Town cemetery in Quetta. [13] The same day, Imran Khan reached Quetta where he met the families of the murdered miners. [14]
In due course, the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack through the Telegram communication channel of the Amaq news agency. [3]
The situation of Human Rights in Pakistan is complex as a result of the country's diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a sovereign Islamic democracy with a mixture of both Islamic and secular law.
The Balochistan Liberation Army, is a Baloch ethnonationalist militant separatist organization based in Afghanistan. BLA's first recorded activity was during the summer of 2000, after it claimed credit for a series of bombing attacks on Pakistani authorities. BLA is listed as a terrorist organization by Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, is a Deobandi supremacist, terrorist and militant organisation based in Afghanistan. The organisation operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is an offshoot of anti-Shia party Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The LeJ was founded by former SSP activists Riaz Basra, Malik Ishaq, Akram Lahori, and Ghulam Rasool Shah.
This is a list of terrorist attacks in Pakistan in the calendar year 2011.
The 2011 Mastung bus shooting was an armed attack on 20 September 2011 on a bus traveling in Mastung District near the city of Quetta in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. The attack left at least 26 people dead. The victims were Shi'a Muslim pilgrims of the Hazara community, suggesting the attack to have been a targeted killing of sectarian nature. The attack occurred in Luck Pass area near Mastung. The bus was leaving Quetta for Taftan, Balochistan. In addition, 2 others were killed in a follow-up attack on a car on its way to rescue the survivors of the bus attack, which raised the death toll to 28 on that day.
The Hazaras have long been the subjects of persecution in Afghanistan. The Hazaras are mostly from Afghanistan, primarily from the central regions of Afghanistan, known as Hazarajat. Significant communities of Hazara people also live in Quetta, Pakistan and in Mashad, Iran, as part of the Hazara and Afghan diasporas.
This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2012. Pakistan has faced numerous attacks by insurgents as a result of the ongoing War in North-West Pakistan by the Pakistani military against militant groups, part of the War on Terror. At the same time, there have also been numerous drone attacks in Pakistan carried out by the United States which exclusively target members of militant groups along the Afghan border regions.
Human rights abuses in the province ofBalochistan refers to the human rights violations that are occurring in the ongoing insurgency in Balochistan. The situation has drawn concern from the international community, The human rights situation in Balochistan is credited to the long-running conflict between Baloch nationalists and Pakistani security forces.
The persecution of Hazaras in Quetta, is a series of ethnic or religious motivated attacks on Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan.
This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2013. Some of the incidents are sectarian in nature and the TTP is responsible for a majority of them.
On 10 January 2013, several bombings took place in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, killing a total of 130 people and injuring at least 270. The Quetta bombings led to protests by the city's Shia Muslim Hazara community; Prime Minister of Pakistan Raja Pervez Ashraf responded by dismissing the Chief Minister of Balochistan, Aslam Raisani, and replacing him with Zulfikar Ali Magsi. On the same day, a bomb exploded in Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing 22 people and injuring 60 others.
On 16 February 2013, at least 91 people were killed and 190 injured after a bomb hidden in a water tank exploded at a market in Hazara Town on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan, Pakistan. Most of the victims were members of the predominantly Shia Twelver ethnic Hazara community, and authorities expected the death toll to rise due to the large number of serious injuries. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group claimed responsibility for the blast, the second major attack against the Shia Hazaras in a month.
This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2015.
On May 29, 2015, twenty-two passengers on a bus in Mastung, Pakistan were killed by gunmen when the bus they were in was hijacked. The gunmen were disguised as Pakistani security members. United Baloch Army (UBA), a militant group operating in Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2017 include, in chronological order:
Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad is a codename of a combined military operation by the Pakistani military in support of local law enforcement agencies to disarm and eliminate the terrorist sleeper cells across all states of Pakistan, started on 22 February 2017. The operation is aimed to eliminate the threat of terrorism, and consolidating the gains of Operation Zarb-e-Azb which was launched in 2014 as a joint military offensive. It is further aimed at ensuring the security of Pakistan's borders. The operation is ongoing active participation from Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Police and other Warfare and Civil Armed Forces managed under the Government of Pakistan. More than 375,000 operations have been carried out against terrorists so far. This operation has been mostly acknowledged after Operation Zarb e Azb.
On 23 June 2017, a series of terrorist attacks took place in Pakistan resulting in 96 dead and over 200 wounded. They included a suicide bombing in Quetta targeting policemen, followed by a double bombing at a market in Parachinar, and the targeted killing of four policemen in Karachi.
Terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2018 include:
The 2019 Quetta bombing was a suicide bomb attack on an open marketplace in Quetta, Pakistan on 12 April, killing 21 people. The bombing took place near an area where many minority Shiite Muslims live. At least ten Hazara, including nine Shiites, were among the dead. Two paramilitary soldiers were also killed in the bombing. PM Imran Khan expressed condolences for the lives lost, directed the authorities to ensure the best medical treatment for the injured, and ordered an increase in security for Shiites and Hazara people. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and ISIL later accepted responsibility for the attack, stating that "their target were Hazara people."
Events from the year 2021 in Pakistan.
