KARACHI: Members of Pakistan’s Hazara community continued their sit-in for a third consecutive day against Friday’s suicide attack in the southwestern city of Quetta and demanded on Sunday that Prime Minister Imran Khan personally visit them to ensure better security.
The Hazar Ganji blast which ripped through a busy outdoor marketplace on the outskirts of Quetta killed at least 20 people, including eight members of the Hazara community and wounded another 48 people, and was claimed by the militant group Daesh on Saturday, according to the group’s news agency.
“The sit-in will continue till Prime Minister Imran Khan, who praised New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for standing with victims of Christchurch mosque, visits and assures us better security,” said Jalila Haider, one of the sit-in organizers.
Protesters have said that no one from the federal government has visited the mourning families. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry did not respond to questions but an interior ministry spokesperson said Interior Minister Shehryar Afridi had no visit scheduled.
Iftikhar Durrani, spokesperson for Prime Minister Imran Khan said he would share details if the premier was to make plans to visit Quetta, capital of Pakistan’s resource-rich southwestern Balochistan province.
Following the blast, Prime Minister Khan said in a post on Twitter that he had called an “immediate inquiry” into the attack.
Balochistan’s provincial chief minister Jam Kamal Khan on Saturday visited the families of victims and asked protesters to end their sit-in at the western bypass but his request was turned down.
“We are taking responsible steps to root out terrorist activities from the province in order to ensure the protection of citizens,” he said.
Balochistan province which borders both Iran and Afghanistan, has increasingly become a flashpoint for sectarian violence between Pakistan’s majority Sunni Muslims and Shias, who account for around a fifth of the country’s 200 million people. The province has been rocked by militant attacks by Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Daesh which have claimed hundreds of lives since 2001.
Last year, Daesh claimed responsibility for an attack on an election rally in Balochistan in which at least 128 people were killed.
Balochistan is the focus of the $57-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a transport and energy link planned between western China and Pakistan’s southern deepwater port of Gwadar.
The attack in Quetta came after a year’s lull in violence against the mainly Shi’ite Hazara minority in the province, though there have been isolated shootings.
Federal minister for maritime affairs, Ali Haider Zaidi also urged protesters to end their sit-in during a visit to Quetta on Saturday.
“I represented the federal government...visited the sit-in to condole, express solidarity and assure them (the protesters) of strict security in future, so they should now end the dharna,” Zaidi told Arab News.
“There would be frequent attacks on the community... (but) there is now peace since last one year. Security agencies are working hard and will make the Hazara colony also safe,” he said.
According to a 2018 report released by the National Commission for Human Rights, 509 ethnic Hazaras were killed and 627 wounded in a spate of attacks against the community between January 2012 and Dec 2017.
The deadliest attacks took place in 2013 when three separate bombings killed more than 200 members of the community in Balochistan. After those attacks, it became standard practice for security officials to escort Hazara buses out of the two protected enclaves where they mostly live and work, including to markets like the one where Friday’s attack occurred.
Protesters vow to continue sit-in against suicide attack in Quetta till PM Khan personally visits
Protesters vow to continue sit-in against suicide attack in Quetta till PM Khan personally visits
- Eight members of the Hazara community were among 20 killed in Quetta’s fruit market on Friday morning
- The community has entered its third consecutive day of protest
Pakistan army hits Afghan Taliban drone storage facility, ammunition depot in Jalalabad
- Around 435 Afghan Taliban fighters killed, over 630 injured in Pakistani military offensive, minister says
- Several countries, global bodies have urged both sides to exercise restraint since the conflict began last week
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army struck a drone storage facility and ammunition depot of Afghan Taliban in Jalalabad, a Pakistani security official said on Monday, following Pakistani strikes on more than 50 locations in Afghanistan amid ongoing hostilities between the neighbors.
Pakistan launched Operation ‘Ghazb lil Haq’ against Afghanistan on the night of Feb. 26 following an attack by Afghanistan on Pakistani military installations along their shared border.
The worst fighting between the two neighbors in years erupted after Pakistani airstrikes targeted what Islamabad called militant hideouts inside Afghanistan on Feb. 21-22, accusing Kabul of harboring Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants behind the attacks on its soil. Afghanistan denies the charge.
A Pakistani security official, who requested anonymity, said the army was continuing “strong retaliatory action” against the Afghan Taliban and blew up multiple border posts, forcing them to abandon their positions.
“Pakistan forces are effectively targeting the bases and military installations of the Fitna Al-Khawarij and the Afghan Taliban,” he said.
“During the effective counter-operation of the Pakistani forces, the ammunition depot and drone storage site of Fitna Al-Khawarij (TTP) and the Afghan Taliban in Jalalabad was destroyed.”
Separately, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said more than 400 Afghan Taliban fighters had been killed and over 630 wounded in the Pakistani military offensive so far.
Pakistan destroyed around 188 check posts and captured 31, according to a post on X by Tarar. Over 180 tanks, armored vehicles and artillery guns were also destroyed in Pakistani air raids at 51 locations across Afghanistan.
On Sunday, Pakistani state media shared a video of what it said were Pakistani soldiers crossing into Afghanistan in the northwest to capture an Afghan post. Pakistan has seized a 32-square-kilometer area of Afghanistan, another Pakistani security official said.
Afghan officials earlier said that dozens of Pakistani soldiers had been killed and several Pakistan posts had been captured by their forces. None of the casualty figures or battlefield claims from either side could be independently verified.
Since the conflict began last week, diplomatic efforts have intensified, with several countries and international bodies calling on both sides to exercise restraint.
The United Nations, along with China and Russia, has called for calm, while US President Donald Trump said Pakistan has the right to defend itself against cross-border militancy.
