Abstract
Quetta is a postcolonial city in Pakistan on the frontiers of global warfare where terrorism—as an extreme or extraordinary condition—is juxtaposed alongside “ordinary” urban social and political dynamics. This combination shapes the nature of and relationships between space, state, and citizens. Unprecedented violence, targeted at the city’s Hazara population, coexists and combines with inefficiencies and informalities in urban governance to create the ultimate juxtacity: one where state institutions engage in power struggles among themselves as security and administration fail, where individually motivated state agents try to work within the constraints of an inefficient political system, where policing involves both public distrust and a constant threat to life, and where life as a Hazara includes both elaborate security arrangements for trips outside Hazara areas and insecurity even inside people’s homes. Identity—religious and ethnic—assumes center-stage in contentious local politics even as activists devise creative and unifying yet disruptive strategies to exert pressure and achieve political goals. The paper studies how these strategies transform and/or reinforce complex juxtapositions of state authority, public space, and grassroots organization.
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This research is based on in-depth, qualitative fieldwork in 2017. All data are treated in accordance with approved IRB protocols.
Notes
For an overview of the historical development of institutions and violence in Quetta, see Gazdar et al. (2010).
The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a sectarian militant organization, has publicly accepted responsibility for many of these attacks in Quetta. It has a history of anti-Shi’i militancy, including in collaboration with the Afghan Taliban. The Hazaras are targeted for their overwhelming Shi’i composition, and they are easy to identify because of their phenotypical distinctions. This is further complicated by historical sectarian and ethnic persecution that Hazaras faced in Afghanistan. A genealogy of the violence is therefore complicated and beyond the scope of this paper. For a detailed documentation of sectarian violence against Hazaras up to 2014, see HRW (2014).
For an example of the federal Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), see Abbas (2011).
For a useful overview of the military’s historical and contemporary role in Pakistan’s politics, see Shah (2014).
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Qayyum, F. State, Security, and People along Urban Frontiers: Juxtapositions of Identity and Authority in Quetta. Urban Forum 31, 409–431 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-020-09395-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-020-09395-4