Hazara Wars in Afghanistan p3
The Afghan people used to speak against the Amir even in their homes, fearing that some of their relatives might spy on them. So Dostu Amir Abd al-Rahman, after eliminating the power of the tribal chiefs and scholars in his competition, took over all the government powers. A historian wrote satirically on his style of government that ‘the center of government in Afghanistan was the bedroom of the emir’. That is, they were all-in-all. But the Afghan Amir Abd al-Rahman explained in his own life why he was taking all the powers in his hands.
He writes in his autobiography that every religious leader, mullah and tribal chief thought of himself as a king. For two hundred years, no Afghan emir had ended his power. Afghans became more powerful than the Turkestan region and the chief Amirs of the Mir and Ghalzai tribes of Hazara. As long as these people are the rulers, then the king cannot establish justice in the whole country. Anyway, friends, these were the situations in which the Hazara tribes and Amir Abdul Rahman were face to face.
One of the reasons for ending the power of the Hazara tribes was that Amir Abdul Rehman was also breaking the power of the rest of the tribes. Another reason was that he had to settle an old score with the Hazara tribes. The Hazara tribes had supported the former Afghan emir Sher Ali in the past, which forced Abdul Rahman Khan to flee Afghanistan. He lived in exile for a long time, and was under Russian influence. So now after becoming rich, Abdul Rahman Khan wanted to taste the help of Sher Ali to the Hazara tribes.
So these two reasons brought Amir Abd al-Rahman to the competition of Hazara. The first thing the Amir did was to impose sixteen separate taxes on the Hazara tribes. Along with this, they started to fine them for trivial things. In the Hazara tribes, the Sunni minority was incited against the Shia majority and riots took place. After these riots, heavy ransom was again paid to the Hazara tribes. The chiefs and scholars of Hazara tribes were also sentenced to imprisonment and exile. After harassing the Hazara tribes in this way for several years, the Amir took another step.
He started deploying many Pashtun commanders with large military forces in Hazara areas. Many of these commanders were cousins of Amir Abdul Rahman. These people oppressed the local population with the help of their soldiers. Afghan historian Syed Askar Mousavi has written the details of atrocities on Hazaras in his book ‘Da Hazaras of Afghanistan’. He writes that government soldiers were given free rein to arrest or torture anyone they wanted in the name of withdrawing their weapons. After receiving these exemptions, Afghan soldiers killed or severely tortured many Hazara tribesmen.
An Afghan commander, Farhad Khan, at one point killed six people and hung their bodies from a tree. On another occasion, the same commander tied four people to horses and dragged them, causing their hides to break. According to Syed Askar Mousavi, on another occasion,Stv Urdu two Hazara people were allegedly asked to insult their holy figures. When they refused, they were thrown to hungry dogs. Another method of cruelty was to tie a person’s hands and feet and put hot stones in his clothes. Or a cat was released.
The cat was then hit from above so that it would become enraged and tear the body of the human with its claws and teeth. Pashtun commanders also allegedly forced Hazara women into marriages. Then the series of insults to Hazara chiefs and scholars continued. There were also riots between the Shia majority and the Sunni minority in the Hazara tribes. When Sheikh Ali Hazara, an important tribe, rebelled against these actions, this rebellion was also brutally crushed. The arrested Hazara fighters were taken to the gallows and hanged.
When the Hazara tribes saw that the excesses of the Pashtun commanders were increasing, they openly attacked the Pashtuns. In 1892, a rebellion broke out that shook the whole of Afghanistan. After that a religious touch came again, it paved the way for Hazara Genocide, Hazara Genocide. What was this religious touch? My curious fellows, this is Bamiyan province of Afghanistan. This province is entirely Hazara and the main passes to western and northern Afghanistan also pass through here. This was the reason why Amir Abd al-Rahman wanted to bring Bamiyan under his control at any cost because of its strategic importance.
He appointed a Pashtun chief Abdul Qadoos as the governor of Bamiyan to crush the Hazara tribes. Abdul Quddus was a person who was the worst enemy of Hazara on both ethnic and religious grounds. This person surpassed all previous governors in oppressing the Hazara tribes. Abdul Quddus started arresting and killing the respected people of the Hazara tribes. Attempts were made to disarm the local population, their women were raped and even attempts were made to push the beliefs of the majority Sunni population against their religious beliefs. In other words, attempts were made to forcefully change their religion.
