Persian Community in quetta pakistan

JEHANGIR PATEL, PARSIANA

KARACHI: For more than 1,000 years, Parsis have thrived in South Asia but an ageing population and emigration to the West driven by instability in Pakistan means the tiny community of "fire worshippers" could could soon be consigned to the country's history books.

The ancestors of today's Parsis in Pakistan -- followers of Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest religions -- fled Persia over a millennium ago for the safety of the western Indian subcontinent.

Legend has it Parsi leader Jadi Rana made a pledge to the then emperor of India that Zoroastrians, known in the region as Parsis, would not be a burden but would blend in like sugar into milk.

But today they are a fading people across the subcontinent, with many affluent families from India and Pakistan leaving for the West.