Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, has said that the policies of Abdur Rahman Khan, the former king of Afghanistan, toward the Hazaras are comparable to Adolf Hitler’s treatment of the Jews in Nazi Germany.
According to the media outlet “Urdu International,” he made these remarks during the “Hazara Culture Day” ceremony in Islamabad. He stated that the period of Abdur Rahman Khan’s rule could be described as “an experience similar to the Nazis in Afghanistan,” adding that he carried out the same actions against the Hazaras that Hitler carried out against the Jews in Europe.
During the same event, the former Pakistani prime minister also described Hazara culture as rich and referred to the Hazaras as “the heirs of Sanskrit, the heirs of Turkic peoples, the heirs of the Upanishads and the Vedas, the heirs of the Quran, the heirs of the English language, and the heirs of the Persian language.”
Historical sources describe Abdur Rahman Khan as a former Afghan ruler accused of widespread repression of the Hazaras between 1891 and 1893. According to these accounts, he issued orders related to suppression, forced displacement, and mass killings.
Historical reports also indicate that, following these events, a large portion of the Hazara population at the time was either killed or displaced. In recent years, some Hazara activists have commemorated September 25 as a memorial day for these events and have called for international recognition of what they describe as the “Hazara genocide.”
Writer:Salima Aryaei
