2011 Hazara Town shooting refers to a massacre of

Hazara people The Hazaras ( fa, , Həzārə; haz, , Āzərə) are an ethnic group and the principal component of the population of Afghanistan, native to, and primarily residing in the Hazaristan (Hazarajat) region in central Afghanistan and generally scatte ...

on 6 May 2011 in

Hazara Town Hazara Town (Urdu: , Hazaragi: , Dari: ) is a lower- to middle-income area on the western outskirts of Quetta, Pakistan with a population of up to 2,500,000, of which an estimated two-thirds are ethnic Hazaras and the remaining portion are Pas ...

Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in Geography of Pakistan, south-west of the country close to the ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

which left 8 dead and at least 15 wounded. The shooting took place early in the morning around 0630 hrs

Pakistan Standard Time Pakistan Standard Time ( ur, , abbreviated as PKT) is UTC+05:00 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The time zone is in use during standard time in Asia. History Pakistan had been following UTC+05:30 since 1907 (during the British Raj) ...

in a park when people were doing morning-exercises, playing

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. Three rockets were fired which was followed by heavy gunfire. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the attack.

Background

Hazara Town is one of the Hazara populated neighborhoods of southwestern city of Quetta in Pakistani province of

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

. The Hazaras are mainly

Shia Muslims Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most n ...

and their neighborhood is surrounded by other

ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

s of

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

sect, Balochs and

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

Shooting

The attack took place in an open field park adjacent to Hazara cemetery by Bypass Road. At least 10 armed men with two

rocket launcher A rocket launcher is a weapon that launches an unguided, rocket-propelled projectile. History The earliest rocket launchers documented in imperial China consisted of arrows modified by the attachment of a rocket motor to the shaft a few in ...

s and automatic assault rifles on three vehicles entered from Brewery Road, took positions on Bypass Road and started shooting. At least three rockets were fired which were followed by heavy gunfire. The shooting last 17 minutes then assailants fled toward the Shalkot area after carrying out the attack. At the end of the day, the shooting left 8 dead and 15 injured.

Perpetrators

The banned Pakistani

extremist militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the attacks in Hazara Town. LeJ specifically talks about Hazara Town shooting in one of their

night letter A night letter is an unsigned leaflet distributed clandestinely. Afghanistan Night letters have been a tactic employed by the Taliban and other extremist groups in Afghanistan to intimidate supporters of secular government and education. Iran ...

s distributed in Quetta by LeJ Balochistan Unit. It is believed that it was one of the attacks in revenge of the death of

Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

leader

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

Response

The protesters blocked the bypass road and demanded the arrest of the assailants. The US Embassy in Islamabad also issued a statement condemning the killings: The Pakistani political parties

Muttahida Qaumi Movement Muttahida Qaumi Movement (abbreviated MQM) is a name currently claimed by two competing Pakistani political factions: * Muttahida Qaumi Movement – London, a political faction managed from the UK * Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan Muttah ...

and Tehreek Insaf condemned the killings and demanded the arrest of perpetrators from

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provin ...

References

External links