Shiites protest deadly attacks
Source: Agencies |
February 19, 2013, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THOUSANDS of Shiite Muslims took to the streets in southwest Pakistan yesterday in a second day of protests following a bombing that killed 84 people. Relatives of the victims refused to bury their loved ones until the army takes action against the militants targeting the minority sect.
Meanwhile, militants wearing suicide vests and disguised as policemen attacked the office of a senior political official in northwest Pakistan, killing six people, police said.
Pakistan has been besieged by militant attacks in recent years, many of them carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the government. The country's Shiites have also increasingly become a target of radical Sunni militant groups allied with the Taliban, who don't believe the Shiites are real Muslims.
Many of these sectarian attacks have occurred in southwest Baluchistan province, which has the largest concentration of Shiites in Pakistan. Many are Hazaras, an ethnic group that migrated from Afghanistan over a century ago.
The bomb that ripped through a market on Saturday in Baluchistan's provincial capital of Quetta was the second mass-casualty attack targeting Shiites in the city in a little over a month. A double bombing of a billiards hall in January killed 86 people.
The death toll from the most recent blast, which was caused by a bomb hidden in a water tank, rose to 84 yesterday after three people died of their wounds, said senior police officer Fayaz Saumbal.
Outrage over the attacks has grown in Pakistan, and protests were held in over a half dozen cities yesterday.
Meanwhile, militants wearing suicide vests and disguised as policemen attacked the office of a senior political official in northwest Pakistan, killing six people, police said.
Pakistan has been besieged by militant attacks in recent years, many of them carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the government. The country's Shiites have also increasingly become a target of radical Sunni militant groups allied with the Taliban, who don't believe the Shiites are real Muslims.
Many of these sectarian attacks have occurred in southwest Baluchistan province, which has the largest concentration of Shiites in Pakistan. Many are Hazaras, an ethnic group that migrated from Afghanistan over a century ago.
The bomb that ripped through a market on Saturday in Baluchistan's provincial capital of Quetta was the second mass-casualty attack targeting Shiites in the city in a little over a month. A double bombing of a billiards hall in January killed 86 people.
The death toll from the most recent blast, which was caused by a bomb hidden in a water tank, rose to 84 yesterday after three people died of their wounds, said senior police officer Fayaz Saumbal.
Outrage over the attacks has grown in Pakistan, and protests were held in over a half dozen cities yesterday.
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