Sit-in against Mastung carnage continues in Quetta

QUETTA: Members of the Hazara community along with coffins of pilgrims killed in the Mastung bomb attack continued their sit-in on Alamdar Road in the provincial capital on the second consecutive day here on Thursday.

“Our protest sit-in on Shuhadaa Chowk Alamdar Road will continue and we will not bury our dead until an operation is launched against the culprits who attacked and killed the pilgrims in Dringer area of Mastung district,” said Syed Musarrat Agha, the Acting President of Balochistan Shia Conference.

Talking to media, Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) leaders Abdul Hassan Hazara and Mirza Hussain Hazara said that sectarianism was being promoted through a planned conspiracy to push Balochistan into anarchy. “If the authorities do not take notice of the sectarian targeted killings immediately the situation will further deteriorate,” they said.

Meanwhile official sources said high profile personalities including federal ministers were due in Quetta on Thursday or Friday to meet with the protestors staging sit-in where they would offer condolence to them on behalf of Prime Minister and the federal government.

They said that Chief Minister Balochistan Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has instructed authorities concerned to plan an alternative and safe route for the pilgrims to visit Iran from Balochistan.

The senior officials have been asked to review the options whether pilgrims of Balochistan be taken to Iran through Karachi-Gwadar route or ferry service from Karachi and Gwadar ports to Bandar Abbas Port of Iran be started, they said, adding that the Quetta-Taftan route might be closed for the pilgrims' traveling due to high security risk.

Thousands have shown solidarity with the families of the victims by holding protests in cities across Pakistan including Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi.