Quetta residents call for better protection

Angry residents on Sunday demanded government protection from an onslaught of attacks against Shiite Muslims, a day after at least 84 people were killed in a massive bombing that a local official said was a sign that security agencies were too scared to do their jobs.

Saturday's blast at a produce market in the city of Quetta also wounded 160 people and underlined the precarious situation for Shiites living in a majority Sunni country where many extremist groups don't consider them real Muslims.

Most of the dead and wounded were Hazaras, an ethnic group that migrated from Afghanistan more than a century ago. Shiite Muslims, including Hazaras, have often been targeted by Sunni extremists in Baluchistan province, where Quetta is the capital, the southern city of Karachi and northwestern Pakistan.

At the blast site, members of the Hazara community helped authorities dig through rubble to find the dead or survivors. Most of their efforts were focused on a two-story building that was destroyed. More than 20 shops nearby were also demolished.

Clothing and shoes were scattered through the concrete rubble, broken steel bars and shattered wooden window frames littering the streets.

One of those helping, Qurban Ali, 40, was instructing young people to be patient and carefully remove the rubble, lest they hurt themselves or survivors still buried in the debris. His cousin Abbas was still missing after the blast.

Like many Hazaras, he lashed out at the people who perpetrated the violence.

"Who are these people who made us Hazara so grim and sad? Why are they after us?" he asked. "Not one month or week passes here without the killing of a member of the Hazara community. Why is the government, both central and provincial, so lethargic in protecting Shiites?"

Near the rubble, a group of more than 50 women were wailing and beating their heads in mourning.

On the road to the neighborhood where the attack occurred, Hazara youth burned tires and chanted for the arrest of the killers. A number of Shiite groups also staged a sit-in and demanded the immediate removal of the chief secretary of Baluchistan and the top police official, said Rahim Jaffery, who heads a Shiite organization called the Council for the Protection of Mourning.

"We are demanding the city (protection) be handed over to the army so that the killing of Hazara Shiites can be stopped," he said.

Growing anger

Pakistan's government, which is gearing up for elections expected within months, faced growing anger on Sunday for failing to deliver stability after the sectarian bombing in Quetta.

On Saturday, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, seen as the most ruthless Sunni sectarian group, claimed responsibility for the attack in Quetta, which deepened suspicions among Shiites that Pakistan's intelligence agencies were turning a blind eye to the bloodshed.

"The terrorist attack on the Hazara Shiite community in Quetta is a failure of the intelligence and security forces," Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, governor of Baluchistan province, said while touring a hospital.

AP-Reuters

(China Daily 02/18/2013 page12)