On Saturday 23 July, 80 people were killed and about 230 wounded by a double suicide attack on marchers in Kabul. The majority of them were from the country’s Hazara minority.

Afghan Independent human rights Commission strongly condemned <bomb blast and mercilessly killing of civilians during protest “Enlightening Movement ” is a great tragedy and unforgivable crime. The AIHRC condemns it in the strongest terms possible, and expresses its condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims>.

AIHRC Also added in their press release that launching peaceful protests and rallies is a human right of citizens, and ensuring the security of the participants is the first duty of the government and security agencies in the country. In today’s incident, it is apparent that security agencies to fulfill their legal obligation, which is ensuring the security of the demonstrators, were extremely weak and reluctant. And they would be accountable under the law. There are clear signs of unpreparedness, reluctance and lack of necessary measures to ensure the security of the protestors and handle emergency situations. Delivering assistance and urgent consideration to the victims, the wounded and dead bodies at the scene did not exist.

In the early hours of Friday morning, the hashtag #enlightenment commenced trending in Afghanistan and briefly in Pakistan and Europe. It speedy won traction, and at the time of writing, greater than 380,000 tweets had been despatched out the usage of the tag. Tragic events in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, from the earlier week, had spilled over into social media.

“Enlightenment” refers to the Hazara Enlightenment motion. They signify Afghanistan’s 1/3-biggest ethnic crew.

Hazaras  originally come from vital Asia, and mostly reside in the highlands of imperative Afghanistan “residing in rural areas manner they are stated to have little get right of entry to to public services and products”.

Political abuse or technical problems?

The TUTAP project is designed to deliver electricity from Turkmenistan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan (the acronym comes from the names of the countries involved), making power available to millions of Afghans by connecting preexisting infrastructure. The German technical advising firm Fichtner originally recommended that the power route run through Bamyan province, near planned Chinese and Indian natural resource projects and a power station that could be connected to the line.

The Hazara minority continued to occupy Demazang Square on Sunday, which was bombed as the demonstrator’s peaceful protest was winding down.

They recited verses from the Koran and held candlelight vigils, despite a 10-day government ban on public gatherings for security reasons. Leaders of the protest movement have said they will not leave until three conditions had been met by the government.

He said the Enlighten Movement, which organized the protests, wants to have its own representatives and members of international human rights organizations take part in the commission Ghani set up to investigate the attack.

AIHRC wants the Afghan government to seriously address this issue, and make a full investigation in this regard, and provide the ground for the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators and the officials who have committed negligence of official duty in this regard, and take urgent and immediate action to help the victims, the injured and those affected and suffered damages in this incident.

UNAMA: The  attack on a gathering of Afghans exercising their right to peaceful assembly was the deadliest single incident recorded by the UN in Afghanistan since 2001. The attack killed at least 73 civilians and injured 291 others. The majority of the victims were reportedly of Hazara ethnicity.

The lines of Afghan men and women who queued to donate blood for their injured compatriots was a poignant indicator of the Afghan peoples’ resilience and solidarity in the face of terrible violence. The display of unity shows the Afghan peoples’ determination to challenge extremism, to remain united and strive for a stable and prosperous future.

The United Nations family stands together with every Afghan, of every ethnicity, united in grief, outrage and condemnation of yesterday’s attack.

The online campaign has been launched in Twitter social media as the users have vowed to launch an online revolution to protest against what they call discrimination in Afghanistan.

Twitter users are saying that the campaign will be historic in the history of social media in the country, specifically in Twitter which is the second most popular social media website in Afghanistan.

The Hazaras lunched campaign on many ways : We sign this petition and request the support of the international community, in particular NATO, to put pressure on Afghan government in every possible way to respect the constitution and the principle of equality among all the citizens. The Afghan government should give a positive response to the request of Afghan citizens regarding the TUTAP project to pass through Bamiyan, as recommended by the international experts in the Afghanistan’s energy master plan.  We ask you to put pressure on the Afghan government to end its discriminatory policies towards the central regions and start working on national development projects in this region. The Afghan government must stop its ethnic-centred policies and not let further ethnic divisions.  

 

 

The collective campaign are not new in Afghanistan, people write and express their point of views on many cases, perhaps Hazaras are strongly continues their peaceful protests to demand equal rights in Afghanistan.

We, the collective of intellectuals, artists and writers of Afghanistan, firmly believe in a fair development of the entire territory, and we understand that the deprivation of a part of the country is the deprivation of the entire country in totality. For this reason we announce that our full and unconditional support of the civil demands are presented to the “movement for enlightenment”.

We join our voice to the people’s voice and ask firmly to all Afghanistan government officials, that the TUTAP energy project will be developed according to the guidelines of the original technical report and according to the will of the people themselves.

 

Finally, we trust that this movement will be just the beginning of a long journey on the road of sustainable and equitable development for all so that one day the entire Afghanistan shall benefit basic services and required infrastructure necessary to the progress of the country.

The next online campaign will be soon, and the Hazrars are going to protest at the European Union and the government of Afghanistan called co-host the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan.

This conference will gather up to 70 countries and 30 international organizations and agencies. It will provide a platform for the government of Afghanistan to set out its vision and track record on reform.