Shiites bury dead four days after attack

Embattled Shiite Muslims buried on Monday victims of the deadliest single attack on their community in Pakistan, ending a four-day protest to demand protection after the provincial government was sacked.

Men, women and children spent four nights camped in freezing cold, refusing to bury the victims of a twin suicide bombing that killed 92 people and wounded more than 120 in the southwestern city of Quetta on Thursday.

A Pakistani Shiite Muslim girl participates in a protest against the twin bombings in Quetta, in Karachi, on Sunday. Asif Hassan / Agence France-Presse

A Sunni Muslim extremist group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, claimed responsibility for the bombing at a snooker hall in the capital of Baluchistan province.

Thousands of Shiites from the ethnic Hazara community gathered for the mass burial of more than 60 of the dead in the afternoon, an AFP photographer said.

Families wept, with many beating their chests and heads in mourning as the coffins were brought to the graveyard in Quetta, guarded by hundreds of police and paramilitaries along with Shiite volunteers.

Thousands of Hazara protesters had staged their sit-in outside the bombed building to demand that the army take over in Baluchistan.

The provincial government was widely criticized for failing to control the myriad security problems and Chief Minister Aslam Raisani was rapped for making a trip to London while security worsened.

Hazaras were initially divided over whether the government had gone far enough to meet their demands by nominating the governor, who is appointed by the national president, to take over the province.

But by 11 am, families started leaving to prepare their dead for burial. Leaders had said overnight they would not call off their protest until they saw official notification of the orders from Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.

Ashraf flew to Quetta on Sunday and announced on live television that the provincial government would be dismissed and the governor would take over.

He said Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi could call the army at "any time for assistance" and the top commander in Baluchistan would "directly" supervise paramilitary forces that have the power to arrest and investigate anyone.

"We are determined to defeat this mindset," Ashraf said, referring to those he accused of trying to divide Shiites and Sunnis.

Refusing to bury the dead is an extreme form of protest in Islamic society, where the deceased are normally buried the same or next day.

Agence France-Presse