Machh tragedy: Maryam Nawaz, Bilawal Bhutto to visit Quetta today

• Maryam Nawaz will arrive in Quetta with senior PML-N leaders
  
• Bilawal Bhutto will be accompanied by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah 
  
• A delegation of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) will also leave for Quetta today
  

PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz along with other leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will visit Quetta today to offer condolences to the affected families of the tragic Machh incident that took place last week.

The PML-N confirmed Maryam Nawaz will be visiting Quetta with other senior leaders of the party whereas Bilawal will be accompanied by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to the Quetta visit.

Read more: Funeral of 11 Balochistan coal miners executed in Machh terror attack today

Besides, a delegation of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) will also leave Islamabad for Quetta today to show solidarity with the Hazara community.

The delegation will convey Maulana Fazlur Rehman's condolence message to the Hazara community members.

Bilawal Bhutto’s arrival in will be Quetta delayed

Bilawal Bhutto’s arrival in Quetta would be delayed as he had to offload the plane after some technical default.

Sharing the update on Twitter, the PPP leader said that he has been making other arrangements and is trying his level best to reach Quetta with CM Sindh & Former PM Gillani.

“Have been trying to reach Quetta with CM Sindh & Former PM Gillani. We’ve had to offload as the plane's engine would not start. Trying to make other arrangements,” Bilawal said in a tweet.

He also stressed that Prime Minister Imran Khan must accept the demands of the victims of terrorism protesting along with their death for the fifth consecutive day now.

PM Imran should visit Quetta: Maryam

Speaking to media in Lahore, Maryam said that Prime Minister Imran Khan should visit Quetta as the bereaved families are “waiting for their leader to come and cure their sorrows”.

“A Prime Minister is like the father of the nation; you [PM Imran] should have gone there. I am also facing a security threat but I decided to meet the victims of the tragic incident,” she said.

Lamenting that the Hazaras have been bracing oppression for a long time now, the PML-N leader said that it is heartbreaking that families, including women and children, are sitting on the streets with the bodies of their loved ones.

“Mothers and daughters of the nation are waiting for you [PM Imran] and you are sending your advisers and ministers,” Maryam lashed out.

“I was not getting security clearance either but I will go and ask them to bury their loved ones. I am going at the request of Nawaz Sharif and will convey his message to the victims,” she went on to add.

Maryam hoped that the victims will get justice.

Tragic Machh incident

Earlier on Sunday, eleven colliers were killed and four others seriously injured after armed men opened fire at them at the Machh coalfield in Balochistan's Bolan district.

Read more: Balochistan CM visits protesting Hazaras, requests them to bury slain coal miners

Police said armed men took the coal miners to nearby mountains where they shot them. At least 11 were confirmed dead and the injured were said to be in critical condition.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had condemned the incident, referring to it as a "cowardly inhumane act of terrorism".

"The families of the victims will not be left abandoned by the govt," he vowed.

CM Balochistan visits Hazara protest

A day earlier, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal had visited the protest camp of the Hazara families and urged them to bury the slain coal miners.

He had appealed to let go of the condition that they will only do so if Prime Minister Imran Khan visits them.

The visit came after talks between the government and members of the Hazara community to end the latter's sit-in following the brutal killing of coal miners in Machh ended inconclusively on Tuesday night, with the protesters persistent in saying they would not bury the dead till Prime Minister Imran Khan arrives at their camp.

Women and children stage protest for fifth consecutive day

Members of the Hazara community have staged a continuous sit-in in Quetta in freezing temperatures to demand justice for the slain coal miners who were gunned down in Machh for the fifth consecutive day.

The bodies of the deceased have been kept where the community is staging its demonstration, on the Quetta-Sibi highway (Western Bypass), near Hazara Town.

Due to the presence of the protesters, the area is completely blocked off to traffic.