{"id":33277,"date":"2019-02-26T09:23:27","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T09:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33277"},"modified":"2019-02-26T09:23:27","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T09:23:27","slug":"afghanistans-persecuted-hazaras-have-little-hope-in-peace-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33277","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan’s persecuted Hazaras have little hope in peace talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Kabul, Afghanistan –<\/strong>\u00a0On September 5 last year, a Wednesday, coach Ghulam Abbas, 58, heard gunfire at the Maiwand Wrestling club\u00a0<\/span>in Dash-e-Barchi, a neighbourhood in Kabul’s west home to a sizeable Hazara community.<\/p>\n

A guard yelled “suicide attacker!” and Abbas ran towards the emergency exit door, slamming it shut behind him.<\/p>\n

But the attacker’s foot was trapped in the door.<\/p>\n

A few seconds later, Abbas was on the ground, crying out in pain. He lost consciousness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The suicide bomber had detonated his explosives.<\/p>\n

Abbas lost his left arm. A second car bomb exploded a few minutes later just outside the club.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In total, at least 20 people were killed and 70 wounded in the assault<\/span><\/span>\u00a0claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL<\/a> or ISIS) group.<\/p>\n

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<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Coach Ghulam Abbas lost his arm when a suicide bomber attacked the wrestling gym [Sorin Furcoi\/Al Jazeera]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Abbas describes it as an attack on the ethnic Hazara minority – a group accounting for up to 15 percent of Afghanistan’s\u00a0<\/span>estimated 30 million population –\u00a0<\/span>most of whom are Shia Muslims.<\/p>\n

A month earlier, in August, a suicide bomber at an education centre in Kabul killed dozens of students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hazara have long suffered oppression and persecution in Afghanistan.\u00a0They are now often targeted by groups swearing allegiance to ISIL.\u00a0<\/span>In the 1990s, thousands were killed by al-Qaeda<\/a> and Taliban fighters.<\/p>\n

The Taliban<\/a> declared them as\u00a0<\/span>“<\/span>non-Muslims<\/span>“<\/span> during their rule from 1996 to 2001.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The government also does not do anything to protect us,” Abbas said.<\/p>\n

As peace talks gather pace following a series of high-level meetings between US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives over the past three months in Doha, Qatar, Hazaras are doubtful that the negotiations will stop the bloodshed.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The peace deal relies on the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and that is just one part of the conflict in the country,”\u00a0said\u00a0Abdullah, a Hazara taxi driver in his fifties who sustained minor injuries in the wrestling club attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

His 16-year-old son Aliyar received 13 stitches on his right leg after he was injured in the same attack. Both of them used to train at the club.<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The gym\u00a0was rebuilt after coming under attack last September [Sorin Furcoi\/Al Jazeera]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Despite a sense of insecurity among Hazaras, Abdullah is hopeful after reading news of Afghan opposition leaders attending a meeting with the Taliban in Moscow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Afghanistan’s high-profile regional and ethnic leaders, including Mohammad Mohaqiq, a Hazara political figure, held a meeting with Taliban delegates in the Russian capital.<\/p>\n

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani dismissed the Moscow talks, saying the Afghan opposition leaders participating had no negotiating authority.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ghani has also been excluded from Doha talks but said Khalilzad, the US envoy, has kept him informed of progress.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Everyone in this country is tired of war, we’ve seen many people die,”\u00a0said Abdullah, the taxi driver.\u00a0<\/span>“We are now hungry for peace and prosperity.”<\/p>\n

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<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
At least 20 people were killed in the attack on the gym, which many believed was a targeted assault against the Hazara minority [Sorin Furcoi\/Al Jazeera]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The wrestling club reopened in November;\u00a0<\/span>the main hall that was covered in blood and bodies was once again filled with young Afghans training.<\/p>\n

Coach Abbas, who has taught students for almost 30 years, has also returned to the club.<\/p>\n

“We still get warnings telling us to shut the club or risk being attacked again,” Abbas told Al Jazeera.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“These people don’t want to see progress and development in our community. But we continue to resist, returning to this club to coach again is a form of resistance.<\/p>\n

“Even if I lose both my arms and legs, I will coach through my words.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kabul, Afghanistan –\u00a0On September 5 last year, a Wednesday, coach Ghulam Abbas, 58, heard gunfire at the Maiwand Wrestling club\u00a0in Dash-e-Barchi, a neighbourhood in Kabul’s west home to a sizeable Hazara community. A guard yelled “suicide attacker!” and Abbas ran towards the emergency exit door, slamming it shut behind him. But the attacker’s foot was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":33278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}