Protesters place blockades on rail tracks at Imamia Colony. PHOTO: ABID NAWAZ/SHAFIQ MALIK/EXPRESS
Protestors at the sit-in in front of the Governor’s House on Tuesday continued to demand action against those responsible for the killing of Hazaras in Quetta.
The sit-in was joined by people who kept arriving in groups. Demonstrations were held at Imamia Colony, in front of Lahore Press Club, at Chungi Amer Sidhu and at Defence.
Metro Bus Service remained suspended on Tuesday. At Allama Iqbal International Airport scuffles between the protestors and passengers were reported.
Operations SP Cantonment division Maroof Safdar Wahla told The Express Tribune that the police were negotiating with the protestors. He said after the sit-in in Quetta was called off, the police were waiting for the protesters in Lahore to disperse peacefully.
Punjab Metro Bus Service Authority General Manager Uzair Shah said that due to the protest demonstration at Chungi, the bus service couldn’t resume on Tuesday. He said that MBS would resume its service on Wednesday.
Nearly 40 protestors staged a sit-in at the main boulevard of the Defence Housing Authority against the killings in Quetta.
They sat outside the commercial area holding placards and demanding justice and immediate action against the terrorists.
Despite the call by Majlis-i-Wehdat-i-Muslameen (MWM) central leadership to end the sit-in, the protest continued in the city. Protest leaders said they had decided to continue their demonstration until all bodies had been buried.
Civil Lines SP Dr Farrukh Raza told The Express Tribune that more than 100 police officials were deployed to protest the protesters.
Former Supreme Court Bar Association president and Prof Asma Jahangir too addressed the sit-in on the Mall. Students of several universities also mounted a vigil.
Qamar Abbas, one of the protestors at the Governor’s House demanded that the government ensure safety of Hazara community. He said that control of Balochistan should be handed over to army.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 20th, 2013.
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@Nasir Abbas: It is always more difficult to counter such acts if conducted by locals. For example, foreigners are relatively easy to track since they can be easily highlighted. But same can't be done for locals with equal efficiency since they can easily clock themselves. Secondly, aside from mis-coordination and lack of investment in securities infrastructure,there is a serious lack of trust amongst the security agencies. For example, ISI refused to share the intel on Karachi violence with Police as they feared it being compromised by politicized organization. Likewise, the political interference in domestic security agencies (FIA,IB etc) has strictly undermined their competencies. The "efficiency" of Police Services needs no introduction. Unless the competency of security agencies is not resort of emergency basis, we can always expect such grim incidents.
May all such terrorist organizations with their global supporters change their hateful attitude and live a life! These criminals have no rights to come in between humans and their Creator. Religious freedom has no future in Pakistan if things didn't change. What Saudi fund is doing is just pushing normal people away from their creator, the Allah! Who they serve by the way by doing so? May Allah punish them soon. Same goes for Iran, merchents of religious hatred! Mr. Kiyani must do some good work on his part. Clean army from this virus.
Great sympathy with the cause ,but blocking highway, air port is not fair
I'm Proud to be a Shia Muslim..... We paved the Way for the creation of Pakistan and We will Save Pakistan Inshallah..... Let these terrorists and agencies try their best to spread hatred among Muslims, but Inshallah We'll defeat them with our SHIA SUNNI Unity.... :)
Harsh comment but here it goes. How deaf, dumb and blind can an average Pakistani be not to see who is doing this. Across the country, thousands of mosques blaringly cry that Shia are ‘Kafir’ and Wajibul Qatal. Organizations have specialized in just killing these innocent people, namely Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, AKA Sipah Sahaba, AKA, Ahle Sunnat wal Jammat (Lets just call them SK- Shia Killers, as I can’t keep up with these name changes). They also publicly claim to have done this (and many other) ghastly misdeeds. If its hard to catch any of their office bearers, let me suggest a simple tool called google, it will reveal all their names and addresses. Some of them should be quite easy to arrest, as our federal or provincial governments seems to be providing them not just Police Protection, but a monthly stipend ! And if evidence is needed for their hate speeches, another simple tool called youtube can provide innumerable speeches of them inculcating their hateful ideology. If only our law enforcers meant what they say