Hazara Town
Hazara Town is a lower- to middle-income area on the outskirts of Quetta with a population of up to 70,000, of which an estimated one third are Hazara Afghans. The area was established in 1982 by Haji Ali Ahmed (an ethnic Hazara) who bought the land from a Kirani Baloch family and built housing there. Many ethnic Hazaras from Afghanistan who were living in different areas of Quetta moved to the settlement, attracted by cheaper land and the security of the scheme.
Hazara Town is divided into nine blocks, and almost all the houses are made of concrete. Afghan residents are Persian-speaking Shias, originally from various provinces in central Afghanistan – including Hazaras who migrated to Pakistan well before the war in Afghanistan as well as those who fled as refugees over the recent years of conflict. The community is a distinct minority in Quetta, which is dominated ethnically by Pashtuns and is predominantly Sunni Muslim.
Most of Hazara Town’s residents arrived as refugees in Quetta in 1996, when the Taliban regime in Afghanistan began to persecute Hazaras. They initially stayed in mosques in Quetta, then moved to homes with the help of local Hazaras who had arrived in Balochistan as early as the late nineteenth century. The refugees’ local networks allowed them to bypass refugee camps altogether. Hazara Town is used as a transit point by some Afghans who move on to Iran, assisted by local Hazaras.
Other Afghans are heavily involved in local trade and business within Hazara Town and beyond. It is common for families in Hazara Town to have relatives settled in Europe, Canada or the United States, and receive regular remittances from them.
The leading source of income for men is work in coalmines in Balochistan. While some of them are contractors in the mines, most work as labourers. The rest of the population is involved in small trade, shopkeeping and daily wage work.