HAZARA TOWN (PAKISTAN): High walls around the neighborhoods of Pakistan’s embattled Hazara community in the southwestern city of Quetta are designed to protect them from extremist militants. It also serve as a constant reminder of the threat they face for their survival. Soldiers and security checkpoints greet visitors to Hazara Town, one of two large guarded neighborhoods in the capital of Baluchistan, a province where religious and sectarian groups often target the mostly Shia Hazaras with bombs and guns.

Despite improved security in recent years, partly because most Hazaras have moved into the guarded enclaves, hardline Sunni militants keep up attacks, such as a blast in April that killed 24 people, among them eight Hazaras. “We are living under siege for more than 1-1/2 decades due to sectarian attacks,” said Sardar Sahil, a Hazara lawyer and rights activist.

“Though all these check-posts were established for our security, we feel we were ourselves also cut off from other communities.” Sahil carries a pistol whenever he leaves home, and relies on his faith as a second layer of security.“I kiss my mother’s hand and she kisses me too and says goodbye with her prayers and good wishes,” Sahil told the news agency at his home. (Agencies)