The Hazara Ghetto: Hazara Town, Quetta – Image Gallery

The Hazara today are largely confined to two neighborhoods – Hazara Town and Mehr Abad. With nearly 850 dead in a series of attacks since 2009, this once vibrant, vital and creative community has been reduced to living apart and in fear. The residents of these neighborhoods rarely travel outside the safety offered by these streets, and few dare even show their faces in Quetta’s main bazaar.

At the many cafes, and restaurants, the young and old alike sit and dream of escaping and making the dangerous sea journey from Indonesia to Australia. Most never make it, but more and more are determined to try. Hazara Town is perhaps the most famous of the Hazara ghetto and houses nearly 70,000 Hazaras. Its quiet streets belie the fear, despondency, sorrow and hopelessness that pervades the lives of the people of this community.