A protest is set to take place in Vancouver this weekend as the hashtag #StopHazaraGenocide gains traction on Twitter.
Hazara activists launched the social media awareness campaign after a suicide bomber struck an education centre in Kabul on Sept. 30, killing 19 people and wounding 27, including teenagers who were taking university practice entry exams.
The explosion took place in Kabul's Dashti Barchi neighbourhood which is populated by ethnic Hazaras who belong to Afghanistan’s minority Shiite community.
Canada has been accepting Afghan refugees, including street dogs and pets who were left behind, since the Taliban took over the country last August. One woman, a 23-year-old university student from Hazara, detailed her difficult journey to flee Afghanistan for Canada; her family did not make it out with her.
Vancouver's Hazara community is planning to gather in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery Saturday (Oct. 8) at 2 p.m. to "amplify calls for a UN Commission of Inquiry on the genocide of the Hazara people in Afghanistan," according to a tweet.
With files from The Canadian Press.
