Hunted Hazaras travel 'Death Road' through Afghanistan

West of the Afghan city of Maidan Shahr is a 40-kilometre stretch of paved highway known as "Death Road", where drivers say the country's ethnic Hazara minority are slaughtered by militants "like sheep and cows".
"The spit dries in our mouths from fear when we pass it," says Mohammad Hussain, who ferries passengers along the road from Kabul to Hazarajat, a region in the central highlands of Afghanistan where the Hazaras have traditionally settled.
Over the years, Hussain says, he has seen the headless bodies of so many people he claims were killed by the Taliban that "I have become ill and have nightmares".

The highway through Taliban-infested Wardak province is one of just two ways to go by road to Bamyan, the main city in the Hazarajat region and a homing beacon of sorts for Hazaras across the country.
For many, "Death Road" is a symbol of the persecution they have faced for decades.
A recent string of beheadings and kidnappings amid fears over a resurgent Taliban and the rise of the Islamic State group saw thousands turn out in Kabul early this month in protests -- a sight not seen in the capital for many years.

Hussain joined them: "We are being slaughtered like cheap sheep and cows with no consequences... Nobody seems to care about us Hazaras," he tells AFP in Dashte Barchi, a majority Hazara neighbourhood in the outer suburbs of Kabul.

"Insecurity has become like a terrible nightmare for Hazaras. They can't leave their homelands, and if they do, they risk being beheaded by these extremists on the roads," Aziz Royesh, a Hazara rights activists and one of the organisers of the protest says.
There are no statistics available charting the number of killings that have taken place along "Death Road", but the growing sense of insecurity has seen Mohammad Zaman, who used to drive passengers in and out of Hazarajat, finally admit defeat.
"I gave up driving and sold my car because ... I did not want to witness my passengers being kidnapped or killed again," he tells AFP.

The protests which swept Kabul on November 11 appeared to catch authorities off guard and highlighted increasing fury at the Hazaras' sense they have been left unprotected by the government.