kalu_miah
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Just looking at some 1971 photographs I noticed there was mention of Yahya Khan and ZAB. Just want to correct people here about Yahya. He was a Punjabi born in Chakval but his ancestors were Kizilbash Persians. He was not Hazara as in the Persian [Farsi] speaking Hazara minority in Quetta, Balochistan who are of Turkic/Kazak background.
Gen Musa Khan was a Hazara from Quetta who was Chief of Staff Pakistan Army but I believe he retired in 1969 so please don't blame the poor Hazara community.
There is no point in blaming a particular community in West Pakistan for 1971. The bald truth and possibly uncomfortable as well, is that it took more than a few men for 1971 to happen. The fact is West Pakistani political, industrial, landed, bureaucratic, military elite as a whole was involved. At another level you can see there wre no demonstrations on the streets about what was happening in East Pakistan.
The failure and blame is difuse and it is nothing less than a mockery to find convenient scapegoats today. West Pakistan as whole was responsible like today Pakistan as a whole is responsible in the genocide of the Hazara that is on going right now. Do you see any demonstrations in Lahore, Karachi etc
Bias and prejudice are the reasons for no action and the same was in 1971.
I knew for some time that Yahya was not Hazara, but Kizilbash shia (Turko/Iranian) who were instrumental in setting up Safavi Persia and eventual conversions of Persians into Shiism, a great geopolitical disaster for the contemporary Muslim world:
Qizilbash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I heard and read that Hazara's were persecuted and massacred by Pashtuns, because of ethnic and religious difference in most of recent history. I was not aware that it is happening in Pakistan nowadays. May be you can create a new thread on this issue.
Hazara's have interesting ancestry. Genetic tests show their link with Mongols, specially with some ancestral population of Chingis Khan. So Mongol's actually do consider them as a brotherly Mongol population, despite the distance, just like Kalmyks in Russian Europe.
There used to be some nomadic Kazakh tribes in Northern Afghanistan, but most have repatriated to Kazakhstan, I met one Imam in a mosque in Turkestan town of Kazakhstan few years ago. I am not sure if Hazara's are linked with Kazakhs, who are mostly Sunni Muslims, like most other nomadic or sedentary Turkic ( or Turko Mongol) population in Central Asia. Some people speculated that the reason Hazara's are Shia, is because some of their ancestors were Mongol soldiers in Il Khan Persia and some moved to Afghanistan after conversion of Persians to Shia faith under Safavi dynasty around 1500 AD. Anyways, off topic here.