...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets...minority say they are being slaughtered by sectarian Lions of Islam in the southwestern city of Quetta, with authorities seemingly unable to halt the killings.
For years, hundreds of thousands of the Shiite community's members have been hemmed into two separate enclaves cordoned off by numerous checkpoints and hundreds of armed guards designed to protect the minority from violent hard boys.