A humble request to the world community and democratic governments to acknowledge and recognize the Hazara Genocide of the 1890s ( Afghanistan ) committed by Afghan Amir Abdur Rehman and make this horrendous crime against humanity a part of their official record. 

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” ― Elie Wiesel

From 1890 - 1893, amid the so-called “Great Game”, in the rugged mountainous valleys of central Afghanistan, a human catastrophe took place, that annihilated hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and changed the lives of other millions of men, women, and children forever.

Hazara Genocide of 1890 – 1893 by Afghan Amir Abdur Rehman Khan, incited by racial and sectarian hatred was one of the most gruesome and heinous crimes ever committed against humanity but the world is oblivious about it. In the wake of the subjugation of Hazarajat, Amir of Kabul Abdur Rehman Khan committed genocide of Hazaras. He not only killed Hazara men en masse and sold Hazara women as slaves in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries, but his atrocities compelled millions of Hazara men, women, and children to migrate from their ancestral lands to neighbouring countries. Hazara land, women, children, and belongings were distributed as spoils of war amongst the Pashtun nomads and soldiers who participated in this “holy war” against the native Hazaras. 

The massacre of thousands of Hazaras, their enslavement and forced migration, were documented by all major newspapers of the world at that time, but no conscious recognition or remembrance exists even today. This indifference and disregard for human dignity have caused Hazaras to suffer during the past 130 years or so. They are still hunted and being killed like sitting ducks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hazaras are still being marginalized, targeted, or even killed due to their very same ethnic identity and religious beliefs. 

BACKGROUND:

The Hazaras are a distinct ethnoreligious group living in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan and have been a target of systematic oppression, persecution, and subject to state-sponsored ethnic cleansing campaigns since the 1890s. They are around 20 - 25 per cent of the total population of present-day Afghanistan. According to some historians Hazaras have lived in this region for thousands of years while some historians claim that they are the descendants of Genghis Khan’s Mongolian army due to their Mongolian features. 

In the aftermath of the 2nd Anglo-Afghan war of 1880 which resulted in a decisive British victory, Abdur Rahman Khan was appointed as new Amir of Afghanistan. The British wanted a strong central government in Afghanistan that could act as a buffer state between India and the Russian empire. Afterwards, the new Amir engaged in crushing the local uprising in the country, especially the Hazarajat uprising of 1888 to 1893 ( started due to excessive taxation and ill-treatment of local population ), with brutal force and unimaginable cruelty. The Great Game might be referred to as the diplomatic and political confrontation between two great powers of the 19th century, but in reality, it was fought in the rugged terrain of central Afghanistan. Millions of people paid a horrible price because of their ethnicity and religion. Hazaras were subjected to state-sponsored ethnic cleansing, with over 60% of their population decimated or forced to flee over a period of 5 years, as Amir sought political and financial control of the Hazara land called Hazarajat in central Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Hazaras were either killed, forced to flee, or captured and late sold as slaves. Their land, possession, and women were distributed among the Pashtun nomads or Kochi's who helped Amir to crush Hazara resistance. Sunni clerics were sent to convert the Shia Hazaras to the Sunni faith by force. Before the invasion Hazarajat was an autonomous region. After the fall of Hazarajat, the remaining Hazaras were subjected to the most inhuman and oppressive treatment by the Amir. Their economy was crushed due to heavy taxes and the distribution of the Hazara fertile lands to Pashtun tribes. 

Until the end of the last century, the Hazaras witnessed the bleakest and most oppressed part of their history, from which they never recovered fully. They were systematically deprived of their fundamental human rights through government-imposed rules and regulations. Even in the 1990s, the Taliban government persecuted thousands of the Hazaras due to their ethnicity and religious beliefs in the Mazar e Sharif and Bamiyan provinces of Afghanistan. 

The social, political, and economic disintegrations of Hazaras continue to this day and the recent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has once again sparked the fears of another phase of the Hazara Genocide. Early warning signs of the genocide of the oppressed Hazaras are in the offing in the wake of the Taliban's despotic reign in Afghanistan on August 15. Besides committing war crimes in Afghanistan by targeting Hazara civilians, the Taliban have also imposed heavy taxation on the Hazara population in Bamiyan. In Daikundi province, the Taliban and their supporters are confiscating the agricultural land of the Hazara villagers. Hundreds of people including children and women were forced to abandon their houses are now compelled to live without a roof on their heads. 

After the Taliban take over, thousands of Hazaras who were previously working for NATO, NGOs, and former Afghan government departments, are forced to leave the country due to fear of reprisal and revenge attacks from Taliban forces and now have to live in inhuman conditions inside refugee camps around the world.

"Every word has consequences. Every Silence, too." ( Jean-Paul Sartre )

The systematic state-sponsored persecution of Hazaras throughout history has its roots in the silence of the civilized world and human rights organizations. The democratic governments of the world, the human rights council, and other sister organizations should come together to help and stop all kinds of atrocities against the defenceless Hazara people of central Afghanistan. This can only be achieved by making the historical wrongs right once and for all. It is therefore requested to all the democratic governments of the world, the UN Human Rights Council, and other related organizations to acknowledge the Hazara Genocide of the 1890s and make it a part of their official record so that those hundreds of thousands of innocent lost souls may get some justice, redemption, and recognition from the world community. This would also help in preventing any further atrocities from being committed against Hazaras.